Trials of a Trainer
by zelcore
Summary: There are trainers, and than there are great trainers. This is how I became the very best of them. Join Red and Blue as their rivalry takes them across a very dangerous Kanto in competition for the Grand Championship. Mix of game/anime/manga. Journey!fic Realistic!pokémon
1. Battle of the Century

**A/N: This is a story that I have been working on for awhile. I'm finally getting around to posting it. Its a pokemon fanfic with Red and Blue chronicling their journey to the championship. I'm going to try and make it a bit different than the games/anime/manga and try and mash them together and put a different spin on it. I think it would be massively boring to just read a complete novelization of the game. I'm planning on making some changes and am going to try and keep it interesting.**

Trials of a Trainer

Chapter 1: Battle of the Century

Every great pokémon trainer has a moment, a moment where they knew that they were going to become one. I'm not talking about the schmuck down the street that has a zigzagoon and claims to be a pokémon trainer because it's foreign and he taught it to sit. I'm talking about the trainers. The ones that liken themselves to the original trainers of old that when the Brink opened and unleashed literal monsters in our world decided that those beasts coming through would be our best chance at defending ourselves.

Torsten of Pewter's ruling Tektite Clan recalled his moment when he watched his grandfather ride off on an enormous onix to defend the stone gray city against Johto.

Pryce Willow, Mahogany's gym leader recalled he would become the best trainer he possibly could after watching helplessly as his lapras was orphaned by an avalanche.

Our esteemed Grand Champion Aconite Shino recalled his moment when he watched his starter hatch from its egg.

My moment wasn't a big flashy moment, or even one most people would call, 'the moment'. It was small, and personal.

I was eight years old. My mother and I lived alone with the exception of her sole pokémon, an older Mr. Mime. We lived on the outskirts of Pallet in a small two bedroom house, it wasn't much, but it was ours. We got by on my mother's meager salary from the diner.

Even then, I was obsessed with pokémon. I tried to learn as much as I possibly could. The different types, and species, and how they interacted with each other, but what captivated me the most were the pokémon battles. Trainers pitting their pokémon against one another in a simple yet high-stakes game.

The Tournament had just begun. The month long event, split up into two tournaments: The Tournament of Champions and the Grand Championship Tournament. Of the two, the Grand Championship Tournament was the more important of the two and it was nearing its conclusion with the Gambit beginning. It was the brief week-long period where a challenger who completed the stringent qualifications could pit their pokémon against the Grand Champion's for the chance at gaining the throne.

The Grand Champion was Indigo's de facto leader. They were considered the best able to defend the region against the monsters that invaded our world millennia ago. They were advised by their hand-picked senior advisors known as the Elite Four and the representatives of the major cities throughout the Johto and Kanto regions known as the Gym Leaders.

In order to be able to qualify to challenge the Grand Champion for the throne, a challenger must first defeat eight of the gym leaders in Indigo. They would need to survive the trial known as traversing Victory Road. If successful, they have to defeat another semifinalist. They would then be entered into the Finals where they would challenge the Elite Four one by one. Upon defeating all four they would be able to challenge the Grand Champion.

Our current Grand Champion Aconite had been on the throne for literal decades. Throughout his reign he has cycled through various Elite Four members and Gym Leaders, and has had many challengers for the throne, but all have failed.

My mother and I had been following the meteoric rise of Blackthorn's Lance Drakken. He had set records for his challenge of the gyms completing all sixteen in a quarter of the time it took most challengers to complete eight.

I woke up early on the very first day of the Gambit. I think I half expected Lance to challenge Aconite at the first chance he got, but instead of the challenging I got something else.

"Good morning," a woman with perfect blonde hair in a red dress said on our dinky little television with a bent antennae. "We have breaking news for you this morning, and it is not what you would expect."

"We have confirmation," a man in perfect black suit jacket and tie continued, "that Giovanni Razzo, the man known as the Would-Be-Champion has returned home at last."

The video cut to a light-skinned man with a black receding hairline. He was standing on a battle platform with a determined look on his face yelling orders down to the biggest sandslash I had ever seen with wicked sharp spines along its back. A second later it sprinted off for a nidoqueen that was almost twice its size.

"For those of you who may not remember, Razzo was a very accomplished serviceman in the Indigo Plateau's special forces following his gaining of the eight badges and passing the tests required for admittance. During his service he continued to challenge gyms throughout Indigo eventually becoming one of the few trainers attain all sixteen."

The television cut to the headshot of Razzo in perfect military blues with eight Indigo badges on one breast and a number of multi-colored bars and medals on the other.

"Ten years ago, Razzo was in much the same position that we are in now with Lance Drakken. A challenger that all analysts say has the greatest chance at claiming the throne in recent memory."

"Reports claim that Razzo was in the throne room in the midst of issuing his challenge when an alert came through from A.C.E. requesting the Indigo Special Forces with great urgency. A claim that grew increasingly fragile as time led on."

An elderly man stood with the backdrop of the Viridian Gym behind him.

"It has been nearly two centuries since Viridian has had a Grand Champion," the man said growing increasingly agitated. "I just find it oddly suspicious that as we are poised to have a new one they are disappeared away under the pretense of an emergency which has still been 'occurring' for years."

"Which means it'll be a race," the male anchor took over. "Who will make it to the Plateau first to challenge Aconite for the throne? The Would-Be Champion or the Dragon Tamer?"

"Red!" My mom said exasperatedly.

My mom said my nickname was one of the only gifts I received from my father, that and the color of my eyes that my name comes from.

"How long have you been up?" Mom called from the doorway.

"Not long," I muttered quietly.

"Mmhmm," my mom said with narrowed eyes. "Go fix your breakfast,]. I'm working a double tonight, so make sure you come to the diner after school."

"Will Oak be at the diner tonight?" I asked between bites of cereal a few minutes later as my mother rushed around in a whirlwind to get ready.

"Professor Oak, young man," she said sternly and I nodded. "I don't know, he comes in sporadically."

I gave my mother a hug and a kiss and headed off to school. School was boring, I didn't get perfect scores on everything, but I was close. The kids weren't outright bullies but they weren't exactly nice. It was subtle, I was picked last or almost last in all the games. They whispered behind my back about my eyes and came up with elaborate stories. The best ones were that I was some kind of experiment that was either a success or a failure that depended on the day; the worst ones was that I was the result of some affair my mother had with a dark-type pokémon trainer, or worse their pokémon.

I ignored them for the most part, although my mother did get called up to the school occasionally for fights. Usually when my classmates would make the more vulgar insinuations about my parentage.

Following school, I made my way to the diner where I tucked myself into a small booth in the corner. I pulled out a book on types and battle strategy that Professor Oak had given me the last time he had been in.

Two hours later, I idly watched the news as they reiterated the exact same information they had this morning about the return of the Would-Be-Champion. They then spent the rest of the news discussing the ongoing battle on the Plateau of the gym relocation from the inner-city Celadon to the frontier town of Pallet.

About an hour before closing I glanced blearily at the door as the bell dinged for the thirty-second time that night. My eyes widened when I saw a middle-aged man in khaki slacks and a white lab coat walk up and seat himself at the bar.

I waited just long enough for my mother to walk up and take his order before I packed up my stuff, walked over and carefully climbed up in the bar stool next to him.

"Good evening Red," Oak said with a warm smile on his face. "Isn't it a little past your bedtime?"

"Not really," I yawned. "I'm not tired at all."

"You listen to me, young man," my mother said as she sat down a plate of food in front of Oak and a slice of chocolate cake in front of me. "You let Professor Oak get a few bites in before you start pestering him with questions."

"He's fine, Delia," Professor Oak watched as I viciously dug into my cake. "I don't mind answering any of his questions. An inquisitive mind is not something I want to stifle."

"How was your day, Professor?" I asked after waiting for him to take precisely four and a half bites.

"It was busy as usual, but not a bad day at all. I received the news that my son's family will be moving here shortly. Which means you'll have a new student in your class, my grandson."

"That's nice," I said politely. "I can't wait to meet him."

"I'm sure you guys will get along great. How was your day, Red?"

"It was okay."

"Just okay? Those kids haven't been bothering you again have they?"

"No, not really. They were all mainly distracted with the Would-Be-Champion returning and who is going to be the next Grand Champion."

"Ahhh. I don't think Mr. Razzo quite likes the nickname the world has given him."

"You've met him? Have you already seen him since he's been back? Why do they call him the Would-Be-Champion?"

"I've met him a few times before he left. He's a very charming charismatic young man, and quite the trainer. Everything they say about his battle prowess is completely true." Oak ate another bite before continuing. "As for the nickname, that moniker started to circulate after his abrupt disappearance. Many believe his chance was stolen from him and that he would have won."

"So you think he'll win if he beats Lance to challenging Aconite?"

Oak barked out a laugh. "Now I didn't say that, Aconite is quite the formidable trainer even in his advanced age."

"Who do you think will win of the two of them against Aconite?"

"You're the fifth person to ask me that today," Oak smiled. "Who do you think will win?"

"According to this," I said tapping the battle strategy guide between us. "They both have about an even chance of beating Aconite."

"Why is that?" Oak asked surprise coloring his voice.

"From what I can tell, Razzo's pokémon before he left were mainly ground and rock types. Which have hard outer bodies and would be hard for Aconite's primarily poison type pokémon to penetrate."

"Very good Red! What about Lance?"

"He's got dragons," I snorted.

"And?" Oak chuckled.

"They're dragons," I sighed. That should have been reason enough. "They have armored scales which would make it very hard for them to penetrate. If they managed to, it would take a very strong poison to be able to bring down a dragon."

"Wouldn't that make Lance a better chance of beating Aconite since it would be just as hard for the poison pokémon to penetrate the dragon's scales as the rock and ground pokemon? And then they have to bring down a dragon's immune system? Which would be much hardier than a rock or ground pokemon's system?"

I nodded. "Except it's Aconite whose pokémon have been creating potent poisons since before you were born. I'm sure his pokémon could bring down a dragon."

"That's an amazing analysis Red! Most people would go right for Lance taking the win easily because of his dragons. Although you did leave out one very important part."

"What's that?" I frowned.

"As all of Aconite's pokémon are poison types, and poison types are not very well known for their sturdiness, they would be more likely to be gravely injured from a good direct hit from say a giant rock or a dragon. But despite that, your reasoning still stands since Aconite would be at an equal disadvantage from both challengers."

I nodded for a moment in thought. "I completely forgot about how Aconite's pokémon would fair against attacks from Lance or Giovanni."

"A fair assumption to make," Oak said sympathetically. "Aconite has been the Grand Champion for decades. Most people don't take his pokémon's frailty into account. They just assume since he's the Grand Champion, they can weather it."

"Boys," my mother called exasperatedly from the other side of the room. "It's time to go, and it's way past your bedtime mister."

I looked around and realized we were the only three left in the diner, all the tables had been wiped down and the chairs stacked up and the back had been locked up. The night had flown by.

"It takes a lot of planning and strategizing to be a good pokémon trainer doesn't it?" I asked as we walked towards the front door.

"You are correct, Red, but I think you are going to be a great trainer," Oak ruffled my hair.

Oak was right of course on both accounts. I haven't known that man to be wrong on very much at all.

That wasn't my moment.

Less than twenty-four hours later, my mother and I were seated on our couch with a bowl of popcorn between us. Mimey was sitting in a comfortable chair on the other side of the room. My mother managed to get one of many other waitresses to return a favor and cover her so that we could watch it together. Just us.

"Good evening Johto and Kanto!" The same correspondent from the night before exclaimed. He was standing yet again in front of an ancient looking grey arena. "We join you tonight in front of the Indigo Colosseum, where the first champion carved it out the very mountain millennia ago. The battle is about to be underway! We now take you inside!"

The camera changed to a wide panning shot of the interior over a thousand people lining the stands. A dirt field with outlined chalk bisecting it covered the majority of the colosseum. On either side of the halves were raised platforms.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, children of all ages welcome to the Grand Championship! This is sure to be a battle to remember! This will be a battle that you will tell your grandchildren about! This will be a battle for the century!"

A blue raised platform appeared on the tv. Standing at the top leaning heavily on a cane was a man that looked to be nearly a century old.

"In the blue corner, He can survive a multitude of deadly venoms and has been the leader of Indigo for over half of his life, the Poison King," The announcer started and was drowned out by the crowd. "We have your current Grand Champion Aconite!"

The elderly man gave a stiff short bow a small smile played on his face as the crowd continued to further deafen the elderly man. He wore a dark violet robe with a single pink flower in his breast pocket. Wrinkles and mottled skin covered his face and arms, and his eyes had a thin white film on them. Long white hair was tied into a neat bun on the back of his head and a long white beard flowed down to his chest.

The red platform appeared it was empty.

The same thought was on everyone's mind, who managed to extend their challenge first?

The camera panned around the stadium as groans and cheers reverberated throughout the room as a man with flaming red hair that stood on end rose out of the center of the platform.

Lance Drakken the Dragon Tamer was the first one to make it to the Plateau.

"Grand Champion Aconite!" Lance called out across the stadium. "I have acquired sixteen badges, I have defeated your Elite, I challenge you for the throne!"

Aconite stood up shakily with the help of a shiny black cane and sighed, "I accept."

"In the red corner, we have the up-and-comer, the man who earned sixteen badges, the only man that can stare down a gyarados, he's known as the Dragon Tamer, but may soon be known as the Dragon King," the crowd went equally as wild cheering, "I give you the Challenger, Lance Drakken!"

The young flame-haired man nodded. He was dressed in a pressed black suit with a white button up shirt and a red tie. Clasped on his shoulders was a burgundy cape that flowed almost all the way down to his feet. He flourished his cape and took a bow.

"The rules are as follows, 6 vs 6 winner with the last standing pokémon is the champion. Begin!" The announcer boomed.

The battle was everything the announcer predicted it to be and more. Back and forth the battle raged on, neither Aconite or Lance able to gain the upperhand on the other.

Death at this level of competition was inevitable, at the same time trainers don't get to this level without being quick on the return. Lance and Aconite, despite his age, were both among these trainers and managed to return their pokemon to pokeball stasis before their injuries could become life threatening. With the exception of Aconite's crobat being swallowed whole by Lance's gyarados.

Neither trainer could pull ahead. They were both completely evenly matched. In a spectacular display of strength Aconite's nidoking and Lance's charizard both managed to knock each other out. A first in the Grand Championship.

"The Champion and the Challenger are both now down to their last pokémon," the announcer boomed. Everyone in the stadium and watching at home were on the edge of their seats. "Who will they choose next?"

Lance pulled off a bulky, overly large pokeball that was faded from a once shiny red and pristine white to an off-color orange and eggshell white. He threw it down to the field with barely a second glance.

A flash of a red light and a looming orange scaled dragonite appeared. The enormous bipedal dragon towered a staggering nearly fourteen feet tall, it flared out a pair of wrinkled azure wings that were taller than a man. Wrinkles covered its armored orange body and its cream colored belly. A white film covered its eyes which made me wonder how it could even see. Two jagged amber antennae stuck out of the top of its head, one bent at a completely unnatural angle. Two fingers were missing on its left forepaw and one from its right hindpaw.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Ares!" The announcer said and the crowd roared in approval. "The dragon that is over a century old. Older than even our dear champion. He's named after the ancient pre-brink god of war, a fitting name since this ancient beast fought under Lance's great grandfather in the last Kanto-Johtan War" the announcer barely finished before Aconite moved to release his pokémon.

Aconite pulled one last pokeball off of his belt, he gave it a solemn look before throwing it down onto the field.

A red laser lanced out and a twelve foot long purple arbok as wide as a fully grown man appeared. The first four feet of the snake were split in two each one ending in a head with a full hood flared out. Each hood continuously shifted its markings from yellow to red to black to orange and black never staying the same for more than a few seconds. The left head's hood had a jagged scar running diagonally across it, no matter what color the rest of the hood changed the scar would always stay the same purple color as the rest of it's scales. They both opened their mouths in near perfect unison showing off their fangs that were nearly a foot long.

The two-headed arbok let out a long hiss that sent shivers down my back as it didn't actually stop to breathe as the other half of the snake would pick up when the other left off.

"Its Doku and Mushi, the only arbok in the world to have two heads! Mushi is the head with the jagged scar. Doku-Mushi was Aconite's starter, hatching for him many many years ago."

"Ixen Drevan!" Lance shouted.

Ares took a wider stance and opened his gigantic maw and launched three balls each one the size of a small car across the battlefield.

Aconite literally hissed at his giant snake.

Doku-Mushi rose up a foot higher before the two heads cocked back and coughed up a trio of dark purple acid globs high into the air.

Aconite and Lance both held their cards to their heart that night for the last battle. Lance spoke exclusively in his native dragon tongue, a famous blackthorn dialect handed down from when the clan first tamed the original dragons. Aconite spoke a coded hissing language that he and the snake developed when they first challenged the league decades ago.

The fireballs and acid collided in midair causing a blinding explosion. The video feed on the television shook as a plume of smoke filled the air.

Through the haze, Ares was barely discernible as he leapt up into the air and flapped his enormous wings dispersing the smoke near him.

A purple blur shot into view as Doku-Mushi landed where Ares had been moments before. The snake coiled in on itself and sprang twenty feet in the air after the hovering dragon fangs bared.

In an almost effortless move, Ares reached out and smacked the neck joint where the heads met, knocking the flying snake out of the air.

Aconite hissed as Doku-Mushi hit the ground and rolled before launching diagonally across the battlefield. A roar shook the colosseum as Ares dive-bombed the spot raking his claws across the dirt.

As one, the purple snake twisted its body, Mushi slithered them away turned completely sideways, while Doku spat bright purple acid at the trailing dragon.

The globule of acid split apart as it sailed through the air hardening into dozens of thin darts.

The dragon barrel-rolled, but a dozen darts impaled the thin membrane of its left wing. The wing seized up and Ares spiraled down and hit the ground with a deafening boom.

A roar filled the colosseum. Ares climbed out of the crater, bright purple liquid dripped from the wing. He flapped it quickly gaining movement back.

"Litentir!" Lance shouted.

Ares' antennae fizzled with dozens of bright blue sparks before a roll of thunder resounded across the stadium. A giant bolt of blue lightning shot into the air.

Twenty feet away, the great purple snake was coiled like a rope. An instant later it shot into the air like a spring. The bolt shot into the sand harmlessly, instantly forming several shards of white hot glass.

The dragon shot off a half dozen smaller bright yellow crackling bolts popping in the air like firecrackers. The snake slithered in wide arcs towards avoiding the lightning strikes with only inches to spare.

"Shetra Weive!"

The dragon's antennae sparked furiously creating a high pitched whine with a popping undercurrent. They produced hundreds of blue sparks that began orbiting a small point between them. Small flecks of metal slowly floated into the air as it was caught in the magnetic field. The whine began building in intensity as the blue ball that was forming began to shine so bright it was blinding.

Aconite hissed. Doku-Mushi stretched out to its full length flat against the ground, and spread its heads as wide as they would go.

Dozens of bright connecting arcs stretched out and formed with the dragon at the epicenter. It collided with the snake with a sharp zap and sizzled out.

Doku-Mushi hissed in pain and his body locked up flat on the ground momentarily.

"Grounding!" The announcer shouted. "A risky strategy involving covering a wide surface area and directing as much of the current into the ground as possible."

Doku-Mushi flicked its tail sending a dozen more toxic spikes toward the dragon. Ares dashed out of the way. In the same instant Doku sent a glob of acid at the dragon.

It hit Ares in it's beige stomach and the dragon roared as the poison sizzled and melted his armored scales together.

"Ixenious!" Lance shouted.

Ares took a running leap into the air and furled out its wings. He opened his mouth and let out a stream of fire straight up in the air before diving, smoke billowing out behind him.

The arbok coiled and launched itself, zigzagging away as fast it could. Ares strafed the snake melting whole sections sections of scales together.

The snake hissed and rolled over on its back, both heads rose to their full height. Ares tucked a wing in and whipped around diving again to the snake maw opened.

In one motion, Doku-Mushi shot a double spray of acid at the incoming dragon. Fire erupted from Ares' maw and an instant later the acid made contact.

The acid literally exploded in the dragon's face, and launched him tumbling through the air. He cratered fifty feet away with a resounding thud throwing up dust.

The snake took off like lightning, making an s-shaped trail through the dirt as he made his way towards the downed dragon.

Ares was groggily standing up, when Doku-Mushi started winding his body up and around the dragon's legs, stomach, wings, and shoulders. Ares struggled against the growing binds, pushing and stretching to loosen the snake, but Doku-Mushi was too strong. Aconite barked a throaty hiss and the snake constricted.

The dragon let out a roar that shook the colosseum as the life was literally being squeezed out of it. The Doku and Mushi peeled away from Ares' body with their fangs bared and began rapidly striking all over the dragon's upper half.

"It looks like Lance's bid for the championship may soon come to an end!" The announcer boomed. "How much more can his dragon take?!"

I turned to my mother with a panicked look and she grabbed me closer, the empty popcorn bowl falling off the couch.

"Shocraos!" Lance shouted.

Ares' antennas began to rapidly spark blue again before thunder shook the battlefield as he sent the blue electric shock down his body.

The snake hissed as his body seized up against its control. Ares pushed and managed to loosen up the snake enough to unfurl his wings and leapt flapping like mad to gain as much altitude as possible, the snake's long tail swinging haphazardly behind them.

The camera zoomed in on the flying duo. Ares did not look good, faint purple veins stood out in the azure color of his wings, one was dripping beads of blood from where the darts impacted. The bites on his neck and shoulder were half melted pits filled with more poison, the veins coming off were in high relief and turning purple as well.

As they continued to climb higher and higher, the snake continued to strike the dragon, even tearing out whole sections of scales.

"Tharm rechan!" Lance shouted.

They crested the top of the colosseum, spectators reached out almost able to touch the flying behemoths.

Ares locked both wings and dove forward and looped once, twice, thrice, each loop smaller than the last. He pulled and pried at the snake trying to throw it off with brute strength and centrifugal force.

"It doesn't look good for the elderly snake! A fall from this height would surely kill him," the announcer said what we were all thinking.

The snake was slowly losing its grip. Inch by inch, it began to slide down the dragon's body despite trying to visibly tighten itself.

And then...the world gasped.

I watched as Ares' eyes rolled back in his head and the dragon and snake plummeted.

I let out a small cry as the two tumbled and somersaulted chaotically through the air.

Lance and Aconite watched helplessly, as they yelled futile orders at their pokémon.

At almost the last possible second, Ares shook himself awake and flared out his wings. It wasn't enough and the two hit the ground digging out a massive ten foot deep crater and throwing up a mushroom cloud of dirt and debris.

The entire colosseum was silent, the entire region was silent as they collectively watched as the dust settled. A fall from that height could have killed both pokémon, whoever managed to survive it would be the champion.

Roaring and hissing filled the stadium, as the ground shook while the dragon and snake wrestled in the cloud of dirt.

The dust finally settled to reveal a swaying Ares with a dozen more pockmarked oozing bites across his upper body. He almost looked more purple than orange at this point.

He held Doku's head in one giant paw and Mushi's head in the other. He merely had to flex a muscle and the snake would be ripped completely in half.

The dragon turned toward Aconite's platform, where the elder trainer stood staring down at the field a somber look on his face.

In one slow motion, Aconite removed the pokeball, pointed it at his snake and thumbed the release. An instant later a red laser shot out and beamed the giant snake which dissolved and disappeared.

The announcer, the stadium, the entire Indigo region watched in complete shocked silence.

"I knew this day would come," Aconite said in a throaty half whisper. "Congratulations Grand Champion Lance," he finished with a somber smile.

An instant later, the world erupted with deafening cheers and screams.

I turned toward mom with the biggest smile on my face literally bouncing in my seat.

"He did it! I can't believe he did it!" I babbled a mile a minute. "Ares was so strong! And Doku-Mushi was so fast! I can't believe he has two heads!"

"It was an amazing battle wasn't it Red?" My mom said breathlessly. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Do you think I can be that good of a trainer one day?" I asked hesitantly.

My mom looked at me with a warm smile and complete confidence in her eyes.

"Red, I believe without a doubt, that you can be even better."

This was my moment. The moment where I knew I was not going to be a great trainer, but the very best.

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The following is an abstracted excerpt from Pokedex Entry # 24 Arbok

Arbok, also known as the Cobra pokémon is highly venomous snake known for its dark violet color and its color changing hood. The pokémon's hood actually contains its poison sacs where its venom is produced and stored. The hood's coloring comes from the translucency of the scales within it from the sacs' growth in size and potency from when it was an ekans. The translucency allows for poison sacs' reactions to be visible which give a unique design on the pokémon's hood. No two arbok are alike, they all have different designs on their hoods as their poisons all have different levels of acidity, their poison sacs themselves are all different sizes and they are all reacting differently. As the arbok grows older it gains much more fine control over the sacs and can control the chemical compounds which allow it to create a frightening array of debilitating poisons. The breadth of these variations in venoms allow for the snake to be able to paralyze, dissolve, change blood viscosity, and even how the poisons react when they come into contact with air, or water…

...perhaps the most famous arbok is former Grand Champion Aconite's one-of-a-kind two-headed serpent Doku-Mushi. They were nearly indistinguishable from one another until in an exhibition match Mushi's hood was nearly severed causing it's now famous scar. Each snake independently controls their own head and the two share one nervous system. They cooperatively control the length of their body beyond the joint of the neck where their heads join. The snake not only holds the record for longest living arbok and most venoms, but also held the record for length until she sired Ira, the arbok that was gifted to Aconite's grandson.

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T**he story has been influenced by a bunch of different fanfics including, Game of Champions by Lamora, The Sun Soul by 50CaliberChaos, Pokémon: The Line by Radhominin, The Saga of Kings by Vile Slanders, and a whole bunch of others.**

**Chapter 2: Family Reunions and Interrupted Celebrations will be posted in one week.**

**What did you guys think? If you leave a review, I'll return the favor!**


	2. Family Reunions & Interruptions

**A/N: Here's Chapter 2. Hope you guys like it! **

**Trials of a Trainer**

**Chapter 2: Family Reunions and Interrupted Celebrations**

Twelve hours later, people were still celebrating. A new Grand Champion, the first one in almost a generation. People across Indigo were still in complete shock. Many had tried to topple the Poison King, but the Dragon Tamer had finally managed it.

Celebration festivities across the region that had been tentatively planned for the weekend were now set in stone.

Pallet was planning a large celebration by their standards to try and drum up more support and publicity for the gym relocation.

Mother and I were planning on attending it until Professor Oak walked into the diner one night, took my mom's boss off to the side and had a talk with him.

Afterwards he promptly called us over and invited us to join his son's family and several of his aids and ranch hands who are caravanning to Viridian for the festivities that weekend.

"Professor Oak, are you going too?" I asked excitedly.

Professor Oak frowned. "I am not unfortunately, it's the ursaring mating season and with most of the aids and hands going it leaves me to ensure things don't get too out of hand. Along with helping to manage the pokemon from the lab that will be showcased during the celebrations, I will be far too busy."

"Oh," my face fell.

"But, my grandson who I was telling you about will be there. He-"

"Thank you, Professor," my mom quickly, "that's very generous, but we couldn't accept."

"Please, Delia," Professor Oak started, "I insist. There's supposed to be exhibition matches, a showcase on Hoenn pokemon, and a lot more. I think Red would really enjoy it."

My mom looked at me practically begging her with my eyes for three seconds before she accepted.

Early friday morning saw the two of us packed and outside Oak's sprawling laboratory and ranch complex.

Standing in front of the lab were four looming blue and green mottled venusaur. Giant ferns sprouted off their back at different angles and each one had a different colored flower. Strapped in between the neck and base of the flower on each pokemon was a large brown saddle.

There were probably around a dozen people milling about when Professor Oak walked out of the front doors of the lab with a young man that looked like a miniature version of himself, except he had slicked-back brown hair instead of gray and was a bit thinner.

Professor Oak introduced mother and I to his only son, Aaron Oak, before the Oaks directed us to our own venusaur ride on during the trip.

At the appearance of the Oaks, the gathered people began to climb on top of the giant dinosaurs.

It was mid-afternoon when we eventually came to a stop in front of the city of Viridian. A fifteen foot stone wall covered in green creeping vines and ivy surrounded the frontier city. It was a formidable wall, nothing compared to Pewter's but still formidable. The wall had stood the test of time for centuries, through wars and wild pokémon. Tall buildings of the modernizing city poked out above.

We climbed off the venusaur, returned them and were admitted through the tall wooden doors where the caravan party split up.

"There's one place I want to show you before we turn in for the night," my mother explained to me and weaved us through the streets of an unfamiliar city.

We stopped in front of an eight foot tall giant white marble slab. Etched across the top of the monument in a dark green were the words: Viridian Razing. Below were over one thousand names etched in black.

I stood in silence as mother stepped forward and traced through all of the names until she stopped on one for a moment before sitting on the ground next to me.

"What do you know about the war?" She asked solemnly.

"Which one?"

"The last one."

"We learned in school that it took place over one hundred years ago. It was between Kanto and Johto and a lot of people died."

My mom nodded. "A lot of people did die. More than in wars past. Kanto and Johto have been warring since the three Birds pulled the region out of the earth, but all of those wars were fought with trainers that had two or three, sometimes four well-trained pokemon. This war was fought with a lot more."

Mother explained to me pokeballs had been invented a few decades before the start of the war. This allowed for trainers to be able to fight with six, eight, even ten pokemon at one time. This spelled disaster once the growing tensions between the two regions boiled over into an all out war.

The war, now known as the Great War went by two different names depending on which side of the Metal Mountain Ranges you were on. To the Johtans it was known as the Kanto War of Aggression, and to the Kantonians it was known as the Kanto War of Annexation.

During this period, Kanto was experiencing the greatest economic boom since humans pulled themselves out of the dark ages following the Brinks introduction of pokemon millennia ago and subsequent destruction of civilization. Saffron and Celadon were becoming the powerhouse inner-cities they are known as today. Factories were booming, population was exploding, and Kanto needed more resources.

Johto was experiencing a traditionalist revival. They were more interested in cultivating their community and what helped them to survive the Brinks .

Kanto saw this as waste since the region had so many resources at their disposal and so much more room to expand. With the help of the Viridian native Grand Champion they promptly invaded Johto and kicked off a war.

The war lasted five years and brought both regions to their knees. One such event was the Razing of Viridian. Roughly a year before a truce was called between the two regions, a group of Johtan soldiers from Blackthorn burned the entire city to the ground with dragonites. They only spared the centuries old gym, and the frontier protecting outer-wall.

The Razing was one of the contributing factors to the ending of the war. It was a stark realization of how much destruction could now be wrought, and saw that the trainers were at risk of burning Indigo completely to the ground.

My mother sighed after the lengthy explanation and got to her feet. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to mine as well before we stepped closer to the monument and she traced a finger around a single name. Two pokeballs were etched next to it, one with a water emblem inside and the other with a rock emblem.

Clark Ketchum

"I know I haven't told you much about our family, other than your father dying just before you were born. This man," she said tapping the name with my finger, "was your great, great, grandfather. He was a good man.

"Clark Ketchum was an accomplished trainer, and had earned four badges prior to the start of the war. He enlisted straight away when war erupted, believing like all Kantonians then that it was the right thing to do. He had many Pokemon, but his two strongest were a feraligatr and a rhydon trained high up in the icy mountains. Clark was in Viridian visiting family when the Johtans attacked. He saved over a hundred people that day, and his two pokemon managed to kill one of the dragonites."

"I was originally from Viridian, Red. While we're here there is someone I want you to meet," she sighed, "and he's the only family we have left. I'm hoping you can change something within him."

She sighed and gave me a hug, "it's been eight years, but let's go meet your grandfather."

Mother led me through the maze of a city again until they stopped in front of a small white house. She took a deep breath and unclipped her single pokeball off and pressed the button.

The ball snapped open and a red laser shot out which formed into Mimey.

The psychic Mr. Mime stood about four feet tall. Mimey had a pale pink head with red cheeks and dark blue hair like appendages sticking out of the top of his head. He had a round white body with red bulbous joints connecting his arms and legs and white bulbous joints at his elbows and knees. He had oversized hands ending in large red fingertips.

Mom knocked on the front door and a few moments later a gruff elderly man with a large belly and short gray hair dressed in dirty clothes opened it.

"Hi Dad," my mom said quietly.

"Dee?" The man said blinking in shock. "Is that you?"

" Yes dad," she replied sternly. "Can we come inside?"

"Yes," he mumbled taking a step back. His eyes narrowed when Mimey followed us in.

He showed us into a darkened living room. A single lamp was on an end table between a dirty armchair and a small couch. A cluster of empty beer bottles covered the coffee table and end table.

A large old black houndoom watched us warily from the corner of the room.

"There's someone I want you to meet." She took a step back and gently prodded my back to step in front of her. "This is your grandson, Red."

My grandfather took one look at me, plopped down in his armchair and drank a swig of beer. "Just like that no good father of his, I see." He snorted. "You gave him his nickname. Did that poor excuse of a trainer finally walk out on you? I'll tell you he lasted a hell of a lot longer than I expected."

My eyes narrowed. I clenched my fists. My father was not a bad trainer. One of the few things my mother had explained to me since I was little was that he was good. Really good.

"No," my mother gritted out, nostrils flaring. "He died before Red was ever even born."

"Ha," he barked out a laugh. "Got himself killed trying to catch one of them legendaries you two were always going on about?"

My mother narrowed her eyes. "We never intended to catch them, that's suicide. They're gods. Moltres had been seen in the mountains causing all kinds of destruction, Red's father went after to try and help and died."

"Maybe he wasn't good for nothing…" my grandfather paused. "You have any of his pokémon left? I could probably sell them for a good price."

"You-you bastard!" My mom shouted. "I had hoped you'd changed after all these years. Your still the same angry drunk old man! I thought you'd like to get to know your grandson. I was wrong."

The houndoom slowly got to its feet and let out a low growl.

"Why the hell would I want to know that red-eyed freak?" my grandfather shouted back standing up. "He's a good-for-nothing trouble maker. Just like his father. I can see it in his eyes."

I swallowed past the hard lump that was forming in my throat. Why was grandfather yelling at me? I hadn't done anything to him I furiously swiped at my burning eyes and looked away from the angry old man.

The houndoom leapt over the couch snarling, smoke billowing out of its maw. Mimey flourished his fingers and a gold translucent barrier shimmered into view in front of us. The houndoom crashed into the barrier like it was a brick wall and hit the ground with a thump.

"Get the hell out of my house!" my grandfather yelled at the top of his lungs.

Mom gripped me roughly by the shoulder and we slowly walked out of the house with Mimey following behind with his back to us.

We walked briskly down the block where my mother sat us on a bench. Where she started to cry.

"I'm sorry Red," my mom sobbed. "I didn't want you to have to see that. He was horrible growing up and I should have never expected anything different."

"It's okay mom," I patted her back. I swallowed past the lump again. "I understand why you showed me grandpa Clark now." She snorted.

"You're a good boy, Red."

And with that the levee broke and my tears began to fall. I let out a little sob.

"Awh," my mom cooed. "Red, I'm sorry." My mom pulled me closer to her side. "It was a stupid idea to come here. We never should have."

"Mom," I said nasally. "Were we supposed to stay the night with Grandpa?"

"Yes, I had hoped things would go differently." She stood up, pulling me with her. "I've got a plan B."

We ended up staying at a pokemon center, one of the nurses was an old friend of mom's and was able to get us a room.

The next morning we left and explored the festival. There were games, rides and food everywhere.

There was a delegation from Hoenn showing off the growing popularity of a new competition there, Contesting.

A baltoy and combusken worked together to form a glass figurine of a pokeball. The baltoy would form the parts out of sand, and the combusken would perform a fiery kick or punch, stopping inches from it and flash-flaming the sand turning it to glass.

A glalie and roselia worked together to create a brilliant show using icicles and razor leaf showering the crowd in glittering snow.

The part I was most excited about however, was the exhibition match.

There was a small grassy field sectioned off with elevated stands on either side. A chalk outline bisected the field with a blue line on one end and red line on the other.

Two trainers in their mid-thirties walked to either end of the field. A board that had been set up on one side of the field lit up denoting that battle would be a simple one vs one battle. The trainer in the red corner was named Charlie and the trainer in the blue corner was Dane. They both had seven badges each.

Charlie tossed out a single pokeball, and a giant granbull burst forth.

The bulky periwinkle canine stood four feet tall and was pure muscle. It had a giant jaw with a pair of one foot long fang-like growths on its lower jaw, and a pair of small fangs from its upper jaw.

The trainer on the blue line tossed out a pokeball which exploded into a poliwrath.

Poliwrath was five feet tall and was a deep blue color. It had two small bulbous white eyes on the top of it's round body and had an enormous stomach with a round black and white swirl. Its arms were bulging with muscles ending in two oversized white hands

"Take down!" Charlie yelled.

The granbull dropped to all fours and galloped to the fighting water pokémon. Before Dane could even get off an order, the canine plowed into the poliwrath. Granbull gored the poliwrath with its fang-like tusks and knocked the pokemon off its feet.

"Hydro-pump!" Dane bellowed.

The poliwrath puffed up and rocketed water out of the center of its spiral. Granbull was launched ten feet into the air across the field and landed so hard he shook the ground.

The poliwrath slowly got to its feet. A wide gash dribbled watery blood down the side of its shoulder.

"Close combat!" Dane shouted.

The poliwrath sprinted to the granbull that was standing up and threw a massive uppercut lifting the canine into the air. The water pokemon shifted its stance and threw a hook just as the canine was coming down rattling the granbull's skull.

The granbull roared and grabbed one of the poliwrath's arms latching onto it with its powerful jaws. It vigorously shook its head twisting the arm to an unnatural angle.

The poliwrath pummeled the granbull with its free arm. After two good hits in its sensitive eye, the canine released the arm.

Draconian roars filled the air. Both startled pokemon backed off. Poliwrath's left arm hung bonelessly from its side.

I looked up and saw eight charizard flying in formation high above the ground. Instantly a smile spread across my face. My heart thundered with excitement. All eight roared in unison again shaking the ground. I had no idea that there was going to be some kind of airshow. It appeared that Blackthorn had sent some dragons to help celebrate.

The excitement in the crowd was palpable. Most people's only chance to see dragons was on television. There were some here though! My smile grew wider when I realized there might be a chance to actually meet them later.

I turned to tell mom that I wanted to try and do just that when I spotted something black out of the corner of my eye.

I squinted and could barely spot that each rider was dressed all in black, which wouldn't be that out of the ordinary except for the fact that they were all wearing black masks.

My heart nearly skipped a beat when I made a sudden realization. This was not a coordinated airshow, this was an attack.

One by one the charizard split off from the pack. They spiraled down into the crowds.

One charizard landed right in the center of the exhibition match. In one motion it swept the poliwrath off its feet and pinned it to the ground with its tail. Simultaneously, it opened its enormous maw and clamped onto granbull's neck.

The canine started wiggling and straining its muscular body to get the charizard to release it, but it was no use.

CRACK!

The sound echoed in the field for what felt like forever. And then the screaming started. Like a broken spell the entire crowd panicked and split up.

The charizard let go of the granbull which crumpled the ground dead.

Charlie and Dane were a flurry of activity as they both threw pokeballs into the field to try and take down the dragon.

Mother clamped her hand around my arm like a vise and half dragged me as we were pushed by the crowd. In the blink of an eye her other hand grabbed her single pokeball off her belt, and released Mimey.

I took one glance back and watched the charizard bend over the poliwrath and release a stream of fire directly in its face. Its body sizzled and it's blue skin turned black and the white spiral began to split.

We were pushed through the sea of people. Festival tents were on fire and black smoke billowed everywhere. People were screaming all around us. High above the pack of charizard roared and sprayed fire.

More and more panicky people joined the throng. We couldn't walk without getting jostled by elbows or feet tangled with someone else fleeing.

One second mom was next to me, and the next second her hand was ripped off my arm and she was gone.

"Mom?!" I screamed, my panic growing. I frantically searched but only saw unrecognizable faces.

Mimey realized something was wrong in the same instant I did. He waved his hands in some unrecognizable gesture and a translucent green barrier sprang into life in a diamond shape between us and the sea of moving people.

"Mom?!" I screamed again. Peering through the barrier to try and find her.

Mimey was frantically searching for her too. His overly large head was scanning through the crowd. He was struggling, his hands were beginning to shake, and a single bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

The crowd suddenly opened up and I saw her. She was frantically running to the barrier, her brown auburn hair in complete disarray.

"Mimey!" I pointed where mom was. "Save her!" A green barrier flickered near her, as our barrier began to phase out. We were slowly getting pushed back into the crowd.

I watched in slow motion as both barriers collapsed completely. Mimey fainted and dropped to the ground next to me like a sack of potatoes.

I locked eyes with mom as she was pushing towards us. Her feet got tangled up with a person next to her and she fell to the ground and was swallowed up by the crowd.

I was in complete shock as the crowd pushed me along. I tried with all my seven-year-old might to push against the crowd, but all I got in return were bruised, a busted lip and a broken nose. I was hysterical, tears and blood running down my face mixing.

My mom was gone. Mimey was gone. I was alone.

The crowd spit me out in some random city block. In a rare moment of clarity, I thought my chances of survival were better hiding out in a building then getting trampled on by the mob.

I rounded a corner and stopped short. Less than twenty feet in front of me was a charizard.

The charizard stood eight feet tall. It had to have been a juvenile, since its horns were still in the middle of splitting. Its orange scales were such a dark color orange they were almost red. It spread its wide wings and flapped them once or twice.

Its snout was stained with blood, and it had a crazed look in its eyes, consumed by the famous dragon rage.

Standing next to it, was its trainer dressed from head to toe in black with a dark colored mask.

The two turned and noticed me almost at the same instant. They began taking a few steps towards me as I backed up to the wall of the building behind me.

I should have ran, but I clearly wasn't thinking straight. I was scrambling for some way to survive with my knowledge of what to do against a charizard. Which mainly involved extinguishing the flame on its tail, but I had no water. And I was seven.

The door to the building slammed opened and I watched as a man stepped out of the shadows.

For a brief second I imagined it as my father, somehow miraculously coming to save me.

The man stepped into the light and I recognized him instantly as Giovanni Razzo, the Would-Be-Champion. I had no time to process the thought that one of the best trainers in Indigo was standing in front of me, or why the hell he just randomly walked out of a building because he dropped a single pokeball on the ground.

A red laser exploded out of the ball and formed into an aerodactyl that was at least three feet taller than the charizard.

The dragon had a purplish-gray colored leathery hide instead of scales with a ridged hump on its back.. It had two short stubby legs that ended in talon like feet that ended with two toes. Its wings were a lighter shade of purple and were made out of a thin membrane material and spread taut. The wings ended in a single clawed finger, with clawed hands at the bend of each wing.

At the sight of the aerodactyl, the man dressed in black took off running at a dead sprint for the buildings.

Giovanni snapped a second pokeball off his belt and a man-sized sandslash with six inch quills overlapping on its back appeared.

"Get the runner," Giovanni said quietly and the pokemon took off running, spraying asphalt into the air with its clawed feet.

The charizard completely ignored the unspoken advice from its trainer and roared a challenge.

The aerodactyl returned in kind, opening its ridged beak-like snout and showing off rows of serrated fangs. It let out a roar that shook the glass windows in the nearby buildings.

Without a word from its trainer the aerodactyl leapt into the fray. The charizard opened its mouth and let out a gout of flame, burning the front half of the ancient dragon.

The two snapped and clawed drawing blood and growls from each other. The aerodactyl was careful to not let charizard's razor sharp claws cut into its wings. It preferred to bunny-hop in the air and attack the red dragon with its overly large talons.

"Finish it," Giovanni muttered.

The aerodactyl ducked under a swinging paw and latched its beak-like snout onto the base of charizard's throat.

The red dragon didn't have a chance to react before the purple dragon wrenched back and opened its throat spraying boiling red blood across himself and flooding the street.

A roar shook the street, and I looked up and saw a second charizard, larger than the one now bleeding out on the ground, fall into a dive. It roared its vengeance for its brother and swooped low. Aerodactyl leapt backwards nearly avoiding getting its wings shredded by the charizard's claws.

"Kill it," Giovanni said.

Needing no further prompting, the aerodactyl flapped its wings and took to the air.

I watched as it effortlessly made its first pass over the charizard, and tilted a wing so the single claw on the edge of its wings ripped a deep gouge out of the charizard's left wing.

The charizard let out a roar of pain and flapped even harder. It struggled to maintain altitude.

The aerodactyl made a second pass perpendicular to the first. Its talons latched onto the fire pokemon's lengthy neck and sickening crack echoed throughout the street.

I watched in amazement as the charizard fell, its neck bent at a completely wrong angle.

It landed in the building directly in front of us spraying debris everywhere.

The last thing I saw was a large red brick hurtling for my face, and then darkness

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**The following is an abstracted excerpt from Pokedex Entry # 122 Mr. Mime**

**Mr. Mime are mainly characterized by their humanoid form with a pale pink head and short blue hairlike appendages. Large red ball shaped joints are located at each shoulder and hip joints, and one remains in the center where its belly button would be. The pokemon has long lanky legs and arms that are very flexible. Its hands end in bulbous red fingertips...The pokemon drops its fairy typing when it evolves from a Mime Jr and is now solely a psychic type. It displays this by using latent telepathic skills to help determine the best way to imitate other people and pokemon and to communicate with them...The pokemon is famous for the barriers it can create and is suitably nicknamed as the barrier pokemon. Its constant imitation involving contorting its body into odd positions has given the pokemon extremely fine motor control over its muscles. This control is so great that the pokemon is able to vibrate its fingertips. This vibration in addition to its psychic abilities, allows the pokemon to be able to solidify air molecules is such a way that it can create physical barriers and objects. Oftentimes this solidification of air molecules refracts visible light and gives off a translucent color of some sort. Extremely skilled members of the species are able to vibrate the molecules so finely that the physical barriers and objects are effectively invisible...It should also be mentioned that mr mime is actually a misnomer. The mime jr and mr mime species are actually androgynous and do not inherently have male or female organs.**

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**The following is an abstracted excerpt from Pokedex Entry # 142 Aerodactyl**

**The aerodactyl, also known as the ancient king of the dragons is a member of the fossil pokemon family. Fossil pokemon are able to be resurrected using a complex process known as revitalization. It first involves taking an extremely well preserved sample of its genetic code from the fossil, destroying it in the process. The genetic code's holes are then filled in with splices from the ancient ancestor's closest modern descendent. The genetic code itself however is very unstable and can only be replicated a few times before it becomes completely unusable.**

**There is an emerging theory that fossil pokemon were not always partially rock types. It is believed that the development of the secondary typing is a leftover artifact from the resurrection process. As such, it is believed that aerodactyl was originally a dragon/flying type and only developed the rock typing following it being brought back to life.**

**The aerodactyl is characterized by its purple and gray colored leathery hide, believed to be the precursor to the modern dragon's tough scales... Aerodactyl are primarily carnivores and were thought to be one of the apex predators of the ancient world. Its membrane-like wings are unlike any other modern dragon pokemon's wings in the world. The ancient dragon's thin wings lends itself perfectly to high speed diving allowing for very little air resistance. As such it was theorized, and then proven correct when the pokemon was resurrected, that the dragon hunts by dive bombing its prey and grabbing them at such high speeds that it breaks their necks. It has also been observed that the purple dragon likes to play with its food by taking its prey to extremely high altitudes and dropping it out of the air. It then catches the prey before it lands on the ground, breaking its neck in the process as well. The aerodactyl is also a ferocious ground fighter where it prefers to take out its enemies as fast as possible by ripping out their throats with its sharp beak-like snout and serrated teeth...The ancient dragon was thought to have also been part poison type. This is because of the pokémon's purple pigmentation which usually is only found in poison type pokémon. The dragon's uniquely shaped fangs also are formed in such a way that suggests they were used to inject venom...It was recently discovered that a small family of aerodactyl was found living in the upper reaches of the mountains within Kanto and Johto. It is unclear however whether or not the family of aerodactyl are surviving members of the ancient world that came through the brink, or an accidental release when the revitalization process was in its infancy.**

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**A/N: I hope it wasn't too exposition heavy. There was quite a bit of worldbuilding in this chapter, and a bit of action.**

**Chapter 3: Growing Up Oak will be posted in one week. **

**What did you guys think of the chapter? And of the pokedex entries? Do they sound somewhat plausible? **

**If you leave a review, I'll return the favor! **


	3. Growing Up Oak

**Here's the third installment. Its my longest chapter yet! This ones a bit more slower paced and there's a lot of Blue in this chapter and he finally gets introduced! There's also a decent amount of world-building. I hope you enjoy it! **

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Chapter 3 Growing Up Oak

Waking up after getting faceful of brick can be very disorienting.

I opened my eyes a crack and was rewarded with a blinding bright light. My head didn't ache nearly as bad as I expected. I felt groggy, my throat was parched and it felt like I had a wad of cotton stuffed in my mouth.

"Grandpa!" I heard a voice shout. I flinched from the pain. "He's awake."

I opened my eyes and sat up. I was in a makeshift hospital bed in a very small room that had one other bed with a boy about my age. The room was barely big enough for both beds to be squeezed in with a small walkway between the two. It looked like it was some old office that had been quickly converted. A desk was upturned against a wall and whatever was on top of it was strewn about on the ground. A small video-phone console stuck out of the wall on one side of the door.

A moment later Professor Oak walked in. He was still dressed in the same khakis, lab coat and shirt that I had seen him in when we last left Pallet. He looked tired.

More tired than I have ever seen then or now.

There were bags underneath his eyes, and new wrinkles had formed in his forehead from all the stress. His eyes looked like he had been crying.

"How are you doing Red?" He asked warmly.

"Thirsty," I said simply and he passed me a glass of water from the bedside table.

"Red, this is my grandson I was telling you about, Gary."

I finally got a good look at the occupant in the bed next to mine.

He was definitely an Oak. He had the same shade of brown hair that his father had, except his was styled in a spiky disarray way. His eyes were sharp and intelligent, and a startling shade of blue.

For a brief moment I saw the Oak smirk that would one day charm the rage out of a gyarados. In a flash it was gone replaced by a frown. The young boy swallowed back tears.

Gary didn't say anything, but gave me a noncommittal grunt.

"Red," he sighed. "Can you tell us what you remember?"

I was silent for a moment before I slowly explained in a monotone voice the events of that horrible day.

"Have they found my mom yet? Is she okay?"

"Red," Oak came and sat on the edge of my bed. "I'm not sure how to tell you this but," he sighed. "She didn't make it."

And like that my entire world fell out beneath me. I was too shocked to even cry.

Oak gave me a long hard hug before moving back to the side of the bed. "A lot of people were lost. My son and daughter-in-law included."

At their mention, Gary let out a small strangled cry.

"Professor?" A nurse popped her head inside the little office. "Child services is here and they wish to speak to you."

"I'm sorry boys," Oak said standing up. "I'll be just a moment." He was halfway to the door when he stopped and turned back around. He dug into his lab coat pocket and removed a pokeball and placed it onto my bedside table. "Mimey is in there, they were...able to identify your mother fairly quickly and retrieved his pokeball. He's completely recovered so if you need a bit more support, he's here."

I nodded and waited for him to leave the room before I gave the pokeball the most scathing glare I could manage.

"Are you going to let him out?" Gary asked. Speaking up for the first time.

"No," I said sternly. "He's the reason mom's gone. He had the barrier up but just couldn't keep it going."

"I know what you mean," Gary picked at a loose thread on his blanket. He didn't want to meet my eyes. "My dad shouldn't have been killed by those dragons," he spat. "He was a third-ring champion."

There's a reason the champion is called the Grand Champion and not simply the champion. Like most things, it is because of tradition.

Long ago monsters first came through portals that would become known as Brinks and waged a war on humans that brought them to the brink of extinction. One human whose name has been lost to time came up with the idea of using these very monsters to defend us. He became the leader of the resistance. He trained an army of humans with literal monsters and beasts at their beck and call and because of him humanity survived. Barely.

When humanity began to rebuild, they decided that this human would become their leader and they called him their champion. He corrected them stating he wasn't the only champion, every one of his fellow brothers and sisters that had served with him and defended them against the monsters was also a champion. The people than dubbed him as their Grand Champion.

This has all culminated in the month long event known as the Indigo League Championships which just passed. The championship is split into two tournaments. The Tournament of Champions and the Grand Tournament.

The Tournament of Champions is a different beast altogether. It is held the week prior to the Grand Tournament, where any trainer that has won eight badges and completed victory road can participate.

Special designation is given to those trainers that have beat members of the Elite Four. Fourth ring has defeated one member; third ring has defeated two members; second ring has defeated three members; and fourth ring has defeated all four members.

The farther the challenger gets in either tournament the more opportunities tend to open up for them. Whether a rising position in a gym, or a good position in the League Congress. People value good battlers just as much as a college degree. After all, the battlers are the ones that protect the people against the monsters of the world.

"He earned all eight badges before I was born," Gary continued. "He beat Edward, a dark type specialist and Blaine, a fire type specialist. Magnus who is a steel type specialist defeated him with a steelix."

Gary spent the next few hours telling me about all of the stories his father had told him of his challenges. Eventually Oak returned and began telling us his stories of when he was a young trainer as well.

The three of us eventually fell asleep. Gary and I in our beds, and Oak in a wooden chair with his feet propped up on Gary's bed.

Hours later, a phone ringing thankfully woke me from a nightmare about that day. I watched quietly as Oak dashed across the room to the video phone and picked up.

"Dammit," he cursed glancing back at Gary and I to make sure we were still sleeping.

On the video-phone a face of an older teenage girl appeared. She had the same shade of brown hair as Gary and looked remarkably similar to his mom from the brief glimpses I got during our travels.

"Daisy," Oak said breathlessly. "Thank the legendaries you finally got my message."

"Sorry grandpa," she said. Her hair was a mess and she had a small cut on her cheek. "I literally just made it into Cerulean from Mt. Moon less than an hour ago. I came straight to the pokemon center and they said I had a message from you."

"What do you know about Viridian?" Oak asked. I watched him put on a stony mask.

"What's going on? They're saying we're going to go to war with Johto. Dragon trainers attacked the festival and burned it to the ground," she took a deep breath. "They killed a lot of people. They're saying its the worst trainer attack since the Razing ...wait ...that's not your lab." Hysteria began to creep into her voice. "Grandpa what's going on? Where are you? Why is Gary in a hospital?"

"Daisy take a few deep breaths for me first," Oak said calmly and waited for her to comply before continuing. "We are not at war, not yet. We are in Viridian, currently in an old bottom level office of the gym. Your parents and Gary went to the festival this weekend."

Daisy's breath caught.

"I wanted to wait to tell you this until you got home, but I guarantee you'll hear about it on the news tomorrow morning." Oak took a deep breath. "Those dragon trainers, they targeted your parents. Your father specifically. He didn't know the charizard was there until they were right on top of him and…" Oak took a shaky breath. "Cut him down in front of Gary before he could do anything. Your mom got caught up in the aftermath."

Daisy's face crumpled. She slumped back in the chair and let out a ragged sob.

"I'm sorry Daisy," Oak whispered.

"What about Gary?" She asked between sobs.

"He's fine. A few cuts and bruises. And shaken up a bit obviously. He hadn't talked much before we got our visitor."

"Visitor?" Daisy blew her nose.

"I invited one of my friends to attend the festival with the group from the lab. She has a son that is every bit as bright as Gary. He reminds me so much of me when I was that age." I watched Oak put on a small smile in the reflection of the video-phone screen. "His name is Red Ketchum. His mom was killed during the attacks. I feel a bit responsible for her death. They wouldn't be in Viridian if I hadn't invited them."

"Grandpa, you had no way of knowing."

"I know but still. His only living relative is a drunk old bastard that lives here in Viridian. I've been arguing with child services all day about their insistence on placing him with the man. I went and visited the man, he doesn't care that his daughter is dead or that his grandson has been abandoned. We are temporarily taking care of him."

Daisy took a deep breath and let it out.

"I've already arranged for a teleportation to get you home. The soonest I could schedule it is the day after tomorrow."

"How are you doing grandpa?"

"I'll be...okay. As soon as I heard the news I flew to Viridian, but by the time I got there I was too late. I knew I should have gone."

"Grandpa, you couldn't have known," Daisy said gently again.

"Okay, get some rest Daisy. We'll see you soon." Oak ended the call.

I was going home with the Oaks. Better than my grandfather I suppose, but I wish I could be going home with Mom.

It took me a long time to fall back asleep.

The next morning I got my first view of the gym as we were leaving. The main field, and all of the smaller offshoot fields had been completely cleared and there were rows and rows of cots with injured and displaced people. It was a far cry from the normal view of the field with giant fighting pokémon.

Professor Oak took Gary and me to the top of a nearby building that was still standing and snapped open a pokeball. A dragonite appeared it wasn't as large or as old as Ares, but it was still a damn scary dragon. On its back was a large brown saddle.

"Boys, meet Lavernia." Oak smiled and for a brief moment the sadness that I'd seen in him since I woke up disappeared. He rubbed the scales underneath her large maw. "I've had her for almost three decades."

My first pokémon flight I thought would have been a bit more memorable, but I couldn't get the image of mom disappearing into the crowd out of my head.

It was still exhilarating, Lavernia easily lifted the three of us into the air and the people milling about in the cities turned into ants. From this height, we could see the massive amount of damage the charizard wrought. Smoke still billowed from the collapsed buildings. The dragon angled itself south and we began our journey home.

Mimey's pokeball in my pocket felt like it was burning a hole in my leg. I'd really begun to despise that pokémon. I briefly considered the idea of digging it out and dropping it in the forest far below.

But it was my last thing from mom.

We stopped halfway for lunch after finding a small clearing in the middle of the forest.

"Grandpa, what does this mean about the gym?" Gary asked.

"I'm not sure…" he saw my questioning look. "Red, the reason my son and his family were moving to Pallet was because Aaron was going to be the new gym leader. It was expected to be one of the first items to be approved by Lance when he ascended the throne considering he is from a frontier town. Pallet town is much more at risk for wild pokémon and needs far more protection than Celadon."

"And now?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. Viridian proved that frontier towns aren't safe, but now there's no suitable gym leader to replace Aaron."

We made it to Pallet in the early evening. Oak and I stopped by my house to gather up some clothes for the next few days. The house felt empty without mom.

The Oak residence was not what I expected. I expected a mansion of some sort with multiple floors from the family that has the renowned pokémon professor of Kanto and champions going back generations. Instead I simply got a decent sized house with four bedrooms. Professor Oak moved me into their guest bedroom.

Daisy arrived the next day. She didn't seem to be doing much better than when she had her conversation with Oak.

The League also announced some of the preliminary findings from their investigation of the event now being called The Burning of Viridian.

A.C.E. discovered that there were a total of twelve dragon trainers involved in the attack. Eight of the conspirators commanded the weyr of charizard while another four helped to coordinate the targets on the ground.

Three of the conspirators had died. Two when their charizard fell on top of them, and another was killed by one of the defending pokemon during the ensuing chaos.

There were already mutterings that the League were going after the death penalty for the rogue trainers.

Everyone was convinced that Blackthorn had sent the trainers. They were the only inhabitants of Indigo crazy enough to train dragons, or even have that many dragons to be able to stage that large of an attack.

Blackthorn immediately denied their involvement with the attack. The leader, Chance Drakken Lance's grandfather and the elder of the community, insisted that the dragon clan had nothing to do with the attack.

My mother's funeral was held the following day. Oak took care of all of the planning and details including retrieving her body from Viridian. It was sparsely attended. Oak, Gary, Daisy and I attended of course. A few of her friends that she worked with at the diner attended as well. Grandfather actually showed up. He scowled at me, as if blaming me for the death of my mother, but didn't say a word to me or my temporary guardians.

Gary's parents' funerals were held the next day. Its attendance was a stark contrast to my mother's. There were close to a hundred people that showed up. Professional trainers, League officials, scientists, and friends. Magnus the steel type specialist of Aconite's Elite Four was even in attendance. He was there to bestow a special honor to Aaron Oak known as the Fallen Champion given to a League Champion that lost their life in defence to Indigo.

Lance did not have an easy first few months following his ascension to the throne. A month after the Burning, the remaining co-conspirators were broken out of a maximum security League holding facility. Lance was too busy dealing with Hoenn who were all up in arms over the fact that their entire delegation were killed during the attacks and were threatening war. War was already brewing between Kanto and Johto as tensions were at an all-time high in recent memory.

Recognizing his efforts to help prevent an even worse massacre, and as a sort-of consolation prize for not winning the Grand Championship, Lance offered Giovanni Razzo a position on his Elite Four. Giovanni turned it down, and instead asked to take up the recently vacated position in Viridian Gym following the death of its leader during the Burning to help rebuild.

Giovanni's new position, combined with no available champion to take the position of the new Gym Leader in Pallet caused the entire gym relocation movement to fall apart. It was decided that Pallet would have plenty of protection on the frontier with Giovanni being so close, and having Professor Oak being a resident of the town.

It was strange adapting to life with the Oaks, but I eventually found my place.

It took me six months to finally release Mimey from the pokeball, and almost another year before I was able to forgive him of my perceived failure of his protection of mother. He did his best.

Oak eventually adopted me. Grandfather signed over whatever rights he had as my guardian with no issue and I became Red Ketchum-Oak.

Gary and I became as close as brothers over the years. Our competitive streak grew. We argued constantly about battle strategies and typing. We vied for the top spot at school, he almost always beat me on some technicality and came out on top. Oak brilliance he'd always say.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

When we turned thirteen the League Congress passed the Youngster Act designed to help get young up and coming trainers out into the circuit much faster.

The League Congress itself was a bureaucratic nightmare where almost nothing was ever passed. It was a miracle the Youngster Act was passed and at least they had someone to blame for the disaster it would become.

The Congress itself was created roughly two centuries ago when the cities that had gyms weren't getting enough attention from the League itself due to the Gym Leaders being to busy with their own duties. That goes without saying that smaller cities and towns that didn't even have gyms were left completely in the dark with League representation.

It worked great in the beginning, when Johto and Kanto weren't at each other's throats. The representation is split evenly down the metal mountains. As such, when Johto and Kanto are fighting nothing actually gets done. This leads to the Gym Leaders and Elite drafting the laws. They eventually get sent to the Grand Champion, who is considered the most powerful individual in Indigo because he has the power to veto any law and send it back for restructuring.

So the entire reason the League Congress was created, to draft legislation so the Gym Leaders and Elite could do their other duties, was now completely defunct.

The Youngster Act became dead in the water the instant Aconite ratified it. People are still unsure why he did it. The Act lowered the Pokemon Trainer Certification age from seventeen down to thirteen. Children were slaughtered in the frontier. They were woefully unprepared, wild pokémon were unlike the starters they were given. They were feral and tore the children to pieces.

Professor Oak used his influence to exclude Pallet town from the original roster of cities. To much outcry and many arguments from Gary and me.

I explain all this so you have some backstory for the decision our hormonal, arrogant, young teenage minds were about to make.

The summer after we turned thirteen, we were bored at home and watched a documentary about uncovering ancient war bunkers. During the many Johto-Kanto Wars over the years, hardened bunkers were built all over the Indigo region as staging grounds or rest places for soldiers.

The documentary was about one such bunker that had been recently discovered in the caves near Mahogany Town in Johto.

The two of us got the bright idea that we'd go searching in the wilds outside of Pallet for one such bunker. There were literally hundreds peppered throughout the regions, surely the Oak and the Ketchum could find one.

We'd gone out in the wilds before with Oak when he did field work and we never had ran into issues before. We were both perhaps the most knowledgeable about pokemon in our school, we were raised by the Pokemon Professor, surely we couldn't have any issues surviving out there.

We were very wrong.

After leaving a note for the professor (which would later be our saving grace) as we usually did before going out in the town, we stopped briefly at the ranch to steal away a pair of growlithe that they use to help corral the pokémon. We then left out of the north gate of the town and had a good idea of where we thought a bunker might be.

We headed directly west and headed into the forestry area that surrounded Pallet. An hour and a half later we found it.

Months ago we had helped Professor Oak out in the wilds with field work and we had flown atop his pidgeot to find a hidden grove with bulbasaur and ivysaur. During the flight, Gary and I had spotted a small cave butted up against a large hill. It matched the exact same kind of cave we had seen in the documentary.

"This is it," Gary said breathlessly as we rested in front of the mouth of the cave. "I told you not to worry about it, we'd have no issues."

I snorted. "If you call nearly getting our legs chewed off by rabid Rattata as no issues, sure."

We pulled out flashlights, released the growlithe and stepped into the cave.

It was inky black, the only light came from the flashlights and small embers that flew off the panting canine pokemon.

"How far do you think the bunker is?" I asked after we had walked for ten minutes. The cave was a small system, not too difficult to navigate.

"Pretty deep, it had to be protected from wild pokémon and enemy troops," Gary said matter-of-factly.

Neither one of us noticed the lack of normal cave-dwelling pokemon like zubat, paras, or geodude.

We progressed further into the system, stepping around rather large droppings from a pokemon, but they weren't fresh so we didn't think anything of it.

Eventually it opened up into a large cavernous room. The growlithe would not pass the threshold into the cave.

"Gary," I dropped my voice to a whisper as my flashlight lit up something big, furry and brown off a back wall. "I don't think this is an old bunker."

He shot a look at the pair of growlithe. They both had their fluffy tails tucked between their legs. "You might be right," he whispered back.

I elbowed him and he followed the beam of my flashlight. Sleeping against one wall of the cave was an enormous ursaring. The giant brown bear looked to weigh over a ton.

Padding paws echoed throughout the chamber and Gary directed his flashlight beam to the movement which revealed a triplet of teddiursa playing atop a small pile of bones. Which meant that the sleeping bear was their mother.

Instantly, all of my knowledge of ursaring came to the front of my mind. They were apex predators. They primary ate fruits and berries, but some like this one apparently, had grown to like the taste of meat. Worse of all, they were very territorial and used their droppings to help mark it.

All of the pieces fell together in the exact same moment. We had completely missed all of the warnings. I looked at Gary and realized he had come to the same rapid conclusion that I had.

Silently, Gary signalled for a retreat and we backed out of the cavern. We were halfway out of the cave when we felt the ground shake. A roar echoed through the system.

We broke into a dead sprint. A left here, a right there. I have no idea how we navigated it practically in darkness. We saw the light at the end of the tunnel and it felt like there was an earthquake under our feet.

We burst out into the bright daylight and whirled around. The ursaring exploded out of the mouth of the cave and rose up on its hindlegs and let out a roar.

We commanded our growlithe forward. They sent a flurry of fire attacks at the bear, but it did nothing. These pokemon were trained for working at the ranch, not for battling. A mistake we realized too late.

A swipe of a paw bigger than my head and the two canines were sent sprawling into the trees. The ursaring took a few steps towards us.

There was a reason there were no other pokemon in the cave. At all. Ursaring were extremely protective of their young and we just stumbled into its home.

CAW

A pidgeot as large as the ursaring dropped out of sky between us and the bear. In one motion it reared up and flapped its long wings. A person hopped off the saddle off the back of the bird. It was Oak.

The bird pokémon hopped and flapped its wings backing the ursaring into the cave. It cawed in its face and the bear turned tail and sprinted back down to its cubs.

Oak was seething. I've only seen him that angry once since. He looked like a powder keg about to explode.

"Grandpa-" Gary started, but Oak shut him up with a look.

"If your sister hadn't seen that note and had the good sense to sprint down to the lab to tell me. You would both be dead. Dead." He took a few deep breaths.

Without a word he held out his hands and we handed him the growlithe's pokeballs which he promptly returned. The pidgeot bowed low and shuffled for easy access to the saddle and all three of us clambered back on.

The flight back to Pallet was silent. We landed at the lab which was curious since I'd have figured the professor would take us straight home.

"Grandp-" Gary started the second we stepped off the bird.

"Gary. Not now," Oak said and returned the pidgeot.

The professor led us into the lab. It was sparse, there were a few researchers and aides but not very many. A few turns and he directed us into his office where he had us sit.

"What do you two have to say for yourselves?"

"We wanted to prove to you that we could do it. That we could survive out there, that we could be trainers."

"Is this true Red?"

I nodded. "The Youngster Act."

"This was about the Youngster Act? I already told the two of you that you would not be getting certified." He barked out a laugh. "I hope your little fool-hardy adventure today proved that you are not ready. There is a reason the certification is the age it is. Trainers still go out there at seventeen and die by the dozens!"

We both looked at our feet.

"You are not ready. Even if you are a Ketchum," Oak looked at me. "Or an Oak," he looked at Gary. "A name is not good enough against a pokemon that can tear you to shreds. You two are smart. Very smart, but you're not ready yet. Four more years and if we're lucky enough you will be."

"Does this mean we're not going to get in trouble?" I asked.

"Ohhh no," Oak said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You are still very much in trouble."

Our punishment was that for the next four months we had to help out at the ranch. Every day for the rest of summer vacation, and after school once we returned.

Even after the punishment was lifted, I continued to help at the ranch.

Six months later, Professor Oak revolutionized the world by releasing his newest invention: the Pokedex. It was a handheld pokemon encyclopedia that was linked to a League database with information on known species. He told us privately that he'd been throwing the idea around since Viridian, but our little trip into the wild proved that he needed to create it. If kids as prepared as Gary and I were still in that kind of danger, than there was little to no help for the rest of the youngsters. Or at least that's what Gary took from it.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

One day, I arrived home from school shortly after my seventeenth birthday and was surprised to find Oak home early.

"Red," Oak said cornering me in the hall as I dropped my bag. "I'm sorry for the late notice, but I've been busy. A.C.E. is here."

"Shit," my heart leapt into my throat. "Professor, I'm sorry." I dropped my voice to a whisper. "Is this about me using your League credentials to check the Gym Leader roster or the gardevoir link that Gary sent me."

"Umm…" Oak blinked, his cheeks flushed red. "Red, this isn't about either of those things," he said guiding me out of the hall.

In the living room, two A.C.E. agents, one man and one woman, were sitting on the couch. They were both dressed in neatly pressed black suits with black ties.

A.C.E. was the intelligence agency of the League government. They also investigated major pokemon attacks both domesticated and wild. People were wary of them, usually when A.C.E. showed up nothing good came out of it.

"Good afternoon Red," the man said shaking my hand. "I'm Agent Davis and this is Agent Miller. We're here to give you an opportunity."

"An opportunity?" I said. A dozen more League violations worse than the ones I admitted to Oak flashed through my mind.

"Yes," Davis continued. "We'd like to offer you a place within our new A.C.E. pilot program that has selected a few graduates across Indigo to begin an accelerated training course."

"I thought A.C.E. didn't recruit unless trainers had at least six badges and eight years experience of pokemon training?"

"That is true," Davis nodded. "But we are starting this program to try and build some trainers from the ground up as agents for the league."

"Who are these other trainers than?"

"That's classified," Miller cut in.

"Is there more than just two?"

"Contrary to what you may think, the world does not simply revolve around those that have the last name of Oak," Miller said, her eyes narrowed.

I put my hands up in a placating gesture. It wouldn't be a good idea to piss off two agents. "I think you're confusing me with my brother. Arrogance is a natural Oak trait, not a nurtured one. No offense, Professor," I added quickly.

"None taken, Red," Oak said with a chuckle.

"Nevertheless, it doesn't whether you have Oak or Ketchum as your last name. A.C.E. wants you Red," Miller said. She gave me a wide smile.

"I think we're getting a little off-track," Davis stepped in. "Red, if you decide to join A.C.E. following your graduation you'd be moved to headquarters at the Plateau where we'd begin your training. That would include further schooling in battling techniques, and species biology. You would become a battling expert that would be used as a first responder during pokemon disasters."

I nodded taking it all in. I had already made my decision the second they announced what the meeting was about.

"You would be able to still challenge the gym circuit of course. A.C.E. likes its trainers to have the badges to back-up their abilities. Once you acquire the different certifications that A.C.E. requires for the more dangerous species you'd be helping to train, you'd have access to their complete arsenal of pokemon for your challenge."

If there was any doubt in my decision, it was now completely gone.

"I thought the League didn't allow corporate sponsored pokemon, just trainers?"

Miller sputtered out a cough. "A.C.E. is not a corporation. It's a League agency. What are you insinuating?"

"Nothing of course. I just find it odd that in the last three years, four of the semifinalists in the Grand Tournament were corporate sponsored trainers. And more than half of the participants in the Tournament of Champions were corporate trainers. Their pokemon were all completely trained by the trainers, because it's illegal to have a corporate trained pokémon take part in the circuit. That isn't to say they don't find work-arounds with trading pokémon, or pokémon supplied by the corporations but trained by the trainers, or inheritance."

"Everything A.C.E. does is completely above-board. They perhaps have even more scrutiny than any of the trainer corporations. As they are a subset of the League itself."

"One could also say they have the least scrutiny and get a blind-eye turned towards them for the same reason."

"That is completely ridiculous," Miller said hotly.

"I just wonder why A.C.E. is all of a sudden wanting to push for training a champion. Especially when half of their roster are fourth and third ring champions. A.C.E. does it for the prestige of the badges and if they're good enough, the rings. I've never heard of A.C.E. intending to have a challenger try and topple Lance."

Miller let out an aggravated growl. "You're straying into dangerous territory, boy."

"Thank you for the opportunity," I said taking a deep breath and standing up. The agents mirrored me. "But I don't think it would be a good fit for me. I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn it down."

It was a testimony to how well Oak knew me that he didn't have a single ounce of surprise on his face when I announced my decision.

"Ar-are you sure," Davis asked completely astounded. I'm not entirely sure if he was following the subtext. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Once we walk out of here, its gone."

"I understand completely," I plastered a fake smile on my face.

"I agree with you," Miller said and she gave me a firm handshake.

"Allow me to see you out," Oak said with an equally fake smile on his face as he led the agents out of the front door.

He returned a few moments later and sat down in his chair with a sigh. "I thought I didn't have to explain to you why it's not a good idea to antagonize A.C.E."

I snorted. "They started it, but true. If I disappear in the middle of the night I didn't run away, the A.C.E. spooks spirited me away to some black site. They're probably planning on using me for some kind of experiment involving a pikachu, some wires and a metal chair. "

"That sounds like the start of a bad joke," Oak cracked a smile. "But, I'm serious. A.C.E. can make your life very difficult."

"That's why I've got Oak tacked onto my name. You're scarier than all the spooks combined."

"Now you sound like Gary."

I gave the Professor my poor attempt at the Oak smirk and we both burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, Red." He said a few moments later. "I meant to warn both you and Gary. You guys are going to be attracting a lot of attention over the next four months before you graduate, and a lot more after. A.C.E. might be the most prestigious, which is probably why they're the first, but they certainly won't be the last. Corporations the region over are going to be tripping over each other to try and get you guys on their roster."

"What do you think I should do?"

"I can't tell you one way or another. That's up to you to decide, Red. I know you'll make the right decision though."

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Professor Oak was right, yet again. Over the next three and a half months I was approached by no less than twelve trainer corporations to join their teams. Gary was approached by more than twenty.

Trainer corporations had emerged within the last fifty or so years. They were companies that sponsored trainers on their gym circuit challenges. The extent of the sponsorship depends on the contract although they usually include a starter pokemon, food and other training supplies, gym fees, and if they're lucky transportation from city to city. In return, the corporations receive a portion of the trainer's winnings from the gym challenges and if they're lucky enough their winnings from the Tournament of Champions. Corporations also like to hold tournaments where they pit their trainers against one another.

They were barred from outright giving their roster fully trained pokémon. It was an addendum written into the original law allowing for the creation of the Corporations to prevent them from creating their own armies. One of the number one fears against the corporations was that they would supply their number with pre-trained pokemon, like the military, and use it to overthrow the government.

The only one I gave serious consideration to their offer (and barely even that) was a think-tank corporation created by the former-Elite Four member and now Cinnabarrean Gym Leader, Dr. Blaine. He wasn't as hands-on as I would have liked though. It would have been great to have two of the greatest scientists and trainers be my mentors. I guess I'll have to just settle for the better of the two.

And that was how Gary and I found ourselves trekking through the trees outside of Pallet town a week prior to our graduation.

It had been non-stop meetings with trainer corporations going after for the last two weeks, and no amount of shooting them down would get it through their heads that I wasn't interested. I needed a break and jumped at the chance when Gary suggested we go camping. A trial run for training he called it.

We were about four hours east of Pallet when we decided to call it a night and broke for camp as dusk was settling in. We quickly pitched our tents, and released a pair of growlithes that Oak insisted we take with us for protection. It was a bit like old-times except we weren't being chased by a giant bear pokemon.

After a dinner of hot dogs cooked over the fire, Gary disappeared into his tent and rummaged around in it for a moment before returning and handing me a bottle.

Magby and Magmar's FireWhisky. A cinnabarean whisky where the casks were aged within the island's famous volcano.

"Swiped it out of grandpa's office last night." He said smugly.

I shook the bottle and inspected the seal.

"Oak bought this for us," I said returning his smugness. "He planned on you taking it."

"What makes you say that?" Gary demanded snatching the bottle back.

"Because the seal isn't broken, and the night before last I saw that his bottle of whisky was only about half gone. This one's brand new." I snatched the bottle back and cracked the lid off. A trail of smoke slowly wafted out of the bottle.

I took a swig and spewed all of it back out coughing. The alcohol hit the campfire and it flashed a bit brighter.

"Red!" Gary exclaimed. "You're wasting it!"

"He definitely did it on purpose," I said between coughs.

Gary looked at the bottle and took a swig before he spewed it into the campfire as well. "Dammit," he muttered.

I grabbed the bottle back and managed to get the alcohol down. My chest burned. "Screw it, it's the last time we'll be together for a while." I handed him the bottle. "You remember when we were going to go together?"

"I think it's better this way." Gary took a swig of the bottle. "It'll look better on the news when we meet each other on the Plateau than when if we're always traveling with each other. You wouldn't fit into my plans anyway."

"You wouldn't fit into mine either," I took a big swig of the bottle and stared into the campfire. I hope my plan would work.

"You know it'll be you and me in the end right?" Gary said more to himself than me. I nodded. "I've always known it'll be us," he said after a moment.

"The question is," I handed the bottle back. "Which one of us will topple Lance first."

An hour and a half later we were halfway through the bottle and feeling pretty drunk.

"So have you thought about what you want for your starter?" I slurred.

Gary nodded. "Oak gave us a decent list of pokemon. But no dragons. He wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pushed."

"I asked about the dragons too. He claimed it would be too much preferential treatment if both Oaks got a dragon."

"I already decided long ago what I wanted anyway...on that day..." Gary trailed off. "A squirtle."

I coughed into the bottle. "Really?" I asked surprised. "I figured you'd have gone with something else."

Gary shook his head. "I thought about a charmander, but it brings up too many memories. I had nightmares for almost a year of the charizard. I decided to extinguish the fear with water instead. Did I ever tell you about that day?" Gary had a haunted look on his face.

I shook my head. Gary grabbed the bottle and took a very large swig of it.

"It was a really good day, we played games and seen several battles. Dad was supposed to take place in one of the biggest exhibition ones that evening. I remember looking up and seeing the charizard flying altogether. One broke off and landed right behind dad. He had sharp reflexes and was already reaching for the pokemon on his belt, but the dragon was too fast. Its claws raked across the front of him, completely opening him up. There was blood everywhere. I dove on the ground to try and get to his belt, but the trainer ripped it off before I could get to it and had the charizard stomp on it. It shattered every single one of his pokeballs.

"Red lasers shot out all around us as other trainers released their pokemon. Mom was hit in the head with a rock as big as her head. In less than five minutes I lost both my parents.

"They weren't able to recover any of my dad's pokemon either. I lost my inheritance that day. I don't care about the Oak money. I wanted to challenge the league with one of my dad's pokemon. He told me when I was little we would breed a starter from one of them for me. Now I'm stuck with a squirtle." Gary took another long swig of the bottle.

"I don't know what to say other than I'm sorry. We lost a lot that day. And nothing changed either from it. Those rogue trainers are still out there somewhere."

"They're going to pay for what they did that day," Gary said darkly.

"The rogue trainers?" I asked.

Gary looked at me for a second. "Sure..." He said noncommittally.

"I know what I'm choosing for my starter," I said, changing the subject. He was in a dark place and I didn't want to let that progress any further tonight. I snatched the bottle back. It was almost empty.

"What's that?" Gary asked.

"A charmander. I'm going to conquer that fear." I finished off the bottle.

"Good luck," Gary snorted.

"I think it's about time we head to bed," I said standing up and nearly falling into the fire. "Tomorrow is not going to be fun."

"You know what?" Gary slurred putting an arm around my shoulder. "If we're going to be rivals, I can't go as Gary." He scrunched up his face in thought for a moment. "If you're Red, I'm going to be Blue."

*************************************************************************************************************

**What did you guys think? There's a few timeskips and a bit of jumping around. I hope it wasn't too confusing. I wanted to try and get caught up to the "present" so Red and Blue can both finally start their journeys. I also wanted to do a proper introduction of Blue and spend enough time with him so you can kind of get a feel for him since he's going to be a major part of the story. I am planning an interlude from Blue's point of view further on down the line as well. I hope it didn't feel like it was dragging on for too long, there was some little tidbits of information I wanted to drop in that will come up later in the story.**

**I didn't include a pokedex entry on this one because there wasn't really a single pokemon that had a very big part during the chapter. As a consolation, I am planning on creating a new work/story to deposit the full entries instead of just the excerpts. Be on the lookout for that later on this week. **

**I also want to thank everyone for the awesome reviews and all of the new followers/favorites that the story has gained in such a short time. I really do appreciate everything, and its exciting to know that you guys enjoy reading the story just as much as I enjoy writing it.**

**If you guys leave a review, I'll return the favor! And if you did and I for some reason forgot to return it, I'm sorry! DM me and I will get on it! **

**The next chapter Goodbyes and Good Battles will be posted in one week.**

**I hope you enjoyed it! Any comments/critiques are greatly appreciated.**

**Thanks for reading! **


	4. Goodbyes and Good Battles

**Here's Chapter 4. Sorry I missed getting this out last week. The past week has been a little crazy with the thanksgiving holidays and everything else. This one was a little bit rougher, and I'm not completely happy with it, but I want to go ahead and get them on their here's the chapter, its a bit slower and has a bit of action. Enjoy! Happy Reading!**

Trials of a Trainer

Chapter 4: Goodbyes and Good Battles

The next morning, I woke up with the worst hangover I've ever had.

Gary, who insisted on being called Blue, helped me to pack up the camp and we both headed groggily back to Pallet.

Oak gave us his own brand of the Oak smirk when we returned, but didn't mention anything about our hangovers or stealing his liquor.

Two days before our graduation, and the start of our journeys, Blue and I sat our Pallet Trainer Certification Exams or PTCE for short.

The first page was pretty blunt.

It listed out various dangers that pokémon trainers were likely to encounter on their journeys. From pokemon training alone it listed out: the possibility of contracting various poisons, extreme elements, electrocution and/or central nervous system damage, third degree burns. It also further explained that trainers were likely to encounter bandits and dangerous feral pokemon.

It than lead into this:

Pokemon training is a very dangerous profession. In the event of your death, which next of kin should we contact and to whom should your surviving pokemon be given to?

That actually gave me pause, not once in the past near decade that I had been painstakingly planning my journey did I ever think I would actually die. It was a very sobering realization. I was confident I would overcome anything that was thrown at me.

I listed Oak as my next of kin and to give him my pokemon. As if I was letting grandfather have any of my surviving pokemon or even be notified if I died for that matter.

The exam was primarily more geared toward what not to do than actually testing what a trainer should do.

There was a long section on the Sugimori Scale, it's history, what it was for, and examples. The scale was created almost three centuries ago by Ken Sugimori, the most famous Grand Champion of that era, as a way to gauge how dangerous various species of pokemon are. It is a scale of 1-5 with exceptions above and below, such as a magikarp at a 0 and the fabled Zapdos at a 10. A caterpie is a 1 while a dragonite is a 5. Some individual members of the can move up or down in the scale from their species and some can even break it. Such as Ares.

They gave scenarios to determine if you are within a certain species territory, such as a snorlax, and what to do if they decide to attack. Nothing. You are dead. There is nothing you can do except not lead it to civilization.

There was a section on vitamins, x-supplements, and rare candies to recognize the difference between them and which ones were allowed at which level of competition. Vitamins any, X-supplements barred from gyms, and Rare Candies were completely banned and recently made illegal.

The exam was actually a lot more in depth than what I expected. Which was really surprising considering Blue and I snuck into Oak's office at the lab and stole a copy of it when we still thought we were going to be Youngsters.

I can only assume that the change in difficulty came about from the hundreds of Youngsters that were slaughtered the first few years.

Blue and I naturally were the first two to finish. Although he beat me by about three minutes. He was gone by the time I made it out of the building, but that was fine. There were two important things I needed to do today.

I made my way through Pallet, following a familiar path that I hadn't taken in years. The single pokeball on my hip weighed heavily.

I stopped in front of a dilapidated house. It wasn't much to begin with, and the years had not been kind, but it was the house I grew up in. It was sold to a real estate developer shortly after I was adopted by the Oaks, but he lost his business at some point the house sat empty I disrepair for nearly a decade.

The inside was mostly the same, when we moved all of my belongings and family pictures and keepsakes to my new home we left all of the furniture. There wasn't much we could do with it, it wasn't worth enough to sell. It had been a patchwork of furniture mom and I had come across growing up.

The couch and television were in the exact same spot from when we watched the Grand Championship all those years ago. The popcorn bowl still sat on the side table by the couch.

The kitchen, hallway and bathroom were all as if I had walked in yesterday with the exception of several years worth of grime and dust buildup.

My room was the only one completely empty, everything within it was moved to my new one in the Oak's residence.

I stepped into mom's room. Her dresser was still a mess, and her closet door was half shut, but her bed was still made perfectly after all the years.

I pulled the pokeball from my hip and released Mimey from it. He had grown older in the last decade. His blue-clown like hair had tinges of gray in it now, and some of his ball-joints were a lighter red color and looked a bit over-stretched.

It took Mimey a moment to realize where we were. For him it had been almost a complete decade since he had last stepped foot in here, he never returned with Oak and me when we retrieved my belongings. The look on his face softened for a moment.

"I need to tell you something Mimey," I started gently. " And I figured here would be the best place to do it."

He watched me intently. I could already feel the waves of sadness radiating off of him from his psychic ability. He already knew what I was going to tell him.

"I can't take you with me. I know that you really want to but-"

Mimey snorted and rolled his eyes.

"No," I said sternly. "And not because 'you're older'. It's because to be honest, you're not a battling pokemon. You're not built for it, you'd get destroyed our there."

He sighed. I could feel a slimmer of acceptance coming across the psychic bond.

"Besides," I smirked. "We both know Oak needs you to help out around the house or he'd end up starving and going to the lab naked."

Faint amusement flickered across.

We spent the next half hour or so wandering around the house reminiscing on memories and dreams that never got a chance.

Eventually I returned Mimey, locked up, and left. I wouldn't be back to the house for a long time.

I made my way across town, stopping only once at the florist, almost dreading my last stop. Eventually I forced my way through the wrought iron gate and through the gravestones before I stopped at mother's.

_Here lies Deliah Ketchum  
A strong and determined woman  
A loving and caring mother  
Taken far too soon_

I did the mental math and realized that she was 25 when she died. I silently agreed with the epitaph. Mom had missed out on a lot.

"Hi Mom," I spoke softly not caring if the one or two other living souls in the cemetery heard me. "I know its been awhile. I've been busy preparing. I wanted to come by and see you today. I'm not sure I'll have a chance to tomorrow, and I will definitely not have a chance to the day after."

I bent down and laid the flowers in front of the grave.

"I start my journey in two days. I almost can't believe it's almost here. Remember when I used to tell you about all the different pokemon I was going to catch? And the strategies I was going to use against the gym leaders? Well I'm finally going to do it."

I sat down and leaned up against the side of the headstone.

"I've already picked out my starter. I wanted to show it to you, but Oak says it won't arrive until sometime tomorrow. It's a charmander." I snorted. "I hope the significance isn't lost on you."

I sighed. "It's going to be weird graduating and not seeing your face in the crowd. Or hearing you wish me good luck as I leave Pallet. Or listening to you try and hide the worry in your voice as you give me all kinds of trainer tips."

I laid my head back on the cool stone and closed my eyes. "I miss you."

I must have dozed off at some point because when I woke up dusk was settling in. I stood up and got a massive cramp in my leg and my neck was in a kink. But it was worth it. I likely wouldn't be back to Pallet for a while.

The next afternoon I showed up at Oak's laboratory. It was where I spent probably half of my childhood after the Oaks took me in.

I walked in and worked myself through the familiar maze of rooms with large complicated machinery and cubicles filled with aides to Oak's office toward the back of the lab. He was sitting at his large wooden desk diligently working through a pile of paperwork when I barged in.

My eyes were immediately drawn to the corner of his desk where two minimized brand new red and white pokeballs sat. One had a blue water type emblem and the other had a red fire type emblem engraved above the release button.

"Red!" Oak said startled looking up. "You're here early." He looked at his watch. "Or...not. It's that time already? The morning just flew by."

"What time did you make it into the lab this morning?" I asked smiling while sitting down in the chair in front of his desk. Right in front of the pokeballs. I politely tried and failed to keep my eyes off of them.

"6am," he said almost sheepishly. "Gary is late as usual I see. I hope he doesn't show up late to graduation tomorrow. That wouldn't be very good example for the valedictorian to make," his eyes twinkled.

"He beat me by a point and a half!" I exclaimed taking my eyes off the pokeballs. "He also still insists on going by Blue."

"I blame you for that," Oaks eyes narrowed. "Whatever epiphany he had over his name on that damn camping trip is your fault."

"Hey," I said putting my hands up. "He came up with it all on his own."

"I just wonder how he'll react when he's called Gary tomorrow instead when he receives his diploma." Oak chuckled.

I let Oak return to his paperwork while we waited for Blue to join us. The entire time my eyes were on the pokeballs.

Finally after twenty minutes, Blue walked in.

"Thank the legendaries!" Oak said glancing above. "We were about to start without you. I was afraid that Red would release the pokemon with his eyes through sheer force of will."

"Sorry Gramps," Blue said. He brushed a twig out of his hair. "I was busy." He avoided outright telling us where he was.

"Well, let's get to it," Oak said with a smirk and snatched up the pokeballs before Blue or I could grab ours.

He led us through the maze of the lab through a few other doors and into a big empty room with steel walls.

"I don't think either of you have actually been in this room," Oak started. "This room is called the bunker, reinforced concrete walls with reinforced carbon-steel walls."

He handed us both our respective pokeballs and stood back.

I walked to the far side of the room. My heart was thumping. I was more than a little bit nervous.

I thumbed the release and a red laser shot out of the pokeball. It coalesced into my starter.

My charmander looked nothing like the charizard that still sometimes plagued my nightmares.

He stood a little over three feet tall. His entire body was covered in small overlapping orange scales with the exception of its cream colored leathery underside from the chest down. Four fangs poked out from its jaw, the upper two larger than the bottom. Three razor sharp claws protruded from its two feet. Its tail was nearly two feet long and ended in a bright glowing orange flame. He looked up at me with wide blue eyes.

When most trainers finally meet their starters, especially league bred starters, a bond is formed between the two. And they're more or less obedient.

That wasn't exactly the case between charmander and I.

The fire pokemon did an about-face and whipped its flaming tail across my chest. I fell down and skidded back a few feet. My shirt was pockmarked with black singes. The charmander's pokeball rolled out of my hands out of reach. Charmander completed his turn and dropped to all fours directly over me.

He growled in my face and small tufts of smoke billowed out the side of his clenched maw.

I screamed and try and crawl backwards and out from underneath the pokémon. I bumped into his forepaws over my shoulders. They were hot to the touch.

"Red!" Oak shouted and moved to push the fire pokemon off.

"Water gun!" Blue shouted from across the room.

Before Oak had taken more than a few steps, a powerful spray of water impacted the charmander in the chest. The spray knocked off the fire pokemon with a thud and he rolled a few feet away.

The charmander was back up on its feet in a second and glared at the water starter.

The squirtle stood at roughly the same height as charmander. Its head, arms, legs, and tail were covered in small bright blue water-resistant scales. Its midsection was covered by a shell, the front a leathery yellow and the back a rock-hard brown.

"What Red?" Blue said in a mocking tone. "Can't tame your starter?"

"Gary!" Oak screamed.

"Let's have a battle!" Blue challenged. An Oak smirk across his face.

"This is ridicu-" Oak started.

"I can't think of anything better," I said eagerly. Not giving a single thought to the fact that my starter just attacked me.

"Boys!" Oak shouted.

Neither of us paid him any attention.

I locked eyes with my starter. I could ignore the attack, but only if he would help me battle. This was our make or break moment.

Charmander stepped in front of me and dropped into a fighting stance.

"Ember!" I shouted.

Charmander's tail flared briefly as he opened his maw and launched a flurry of small fireballs the size of ping pong balls across the bunker.

With an unspoken command, charmander followed up the attack by all-out sprinting at the turtle pokémon.

"Withdraw!" Blue shouted.

The turtle popped its appendages inside the shell. Leaving it standing straight up.

The wide spray of fireballs singed the front side of the shell.

Charmander dropped its shoulder and crashed into the squirtle. The shell flew into the air and hit the back of the bunker with a metallic CLANG! Before dropping to the ground. There was a small shell shaped dent in the metal.

"Bubble!" Blue shouted.

Squirtle's appendages popped out of the shell. It took a deep breath and blew a solid stream of bubbles. They floated lazily through the air before coming to rest randomly on the steel floor unpopped.

"Water gun!" Blue shouted, not giving us a chance to react.

The squirtle set its feet and opened its beak-like mouth. A gush of water sprayed out of its mouth.

Charmander rolled out of the way of the spray of water, and right into the bubbles. They exploded causing a chain reaction of all the bubbles popping. The bubbles reacted with the air drenching the charmander in water.

Steam rolled off the fire pokemon as the water droplets evaporated. His tail burned brighter.

I pointed at the turtle. "Bash him into the wall!

Charmander dropped to all fours and took off sprinting for the turtle.

"Spray him in the face!" Blue shouted.

Squirtle opened its mouth as Charmander skidded to a stop in front of the turtle. In one motion, the orange dragon ducked underneath the spray of water and smacked the turtle across the face with its tail.

The squirtle chirped as its skin hissed and sizzled. Small flames flickered across the water type's head where charmander's tail fuel spilled on it. A spot on its cheek the size of my fist cracked and turned dark purple.

The turtle's eyes narrowed. Before charmander could move an inch, the strongest spray of water yet slammed straight into its face.

The fire type flew through the air flipping head over flaming tail before landing in a heap at my feet. Charmander's whole body sizzled and steamed. I watched as he struggled to regain his heat. Its tail flared briefly again before it dimmed to a small whispering flame.

"Good battle Blue," I called across the bunker. I bent over and reached out a hand to pull my starter to his feet. He ignored me and blew a puff of smoke in my face climbing to his feet himself.

"Red," Professor Oak walked over to where I stood, slightly dumbfounded. "I'm sorry again. I had no idea he would have that reaction." Oak thumbed the release button on my pokeball he picked up and a laser shot out catching the charmander on the arm which promptly disappeared.

"Well Red," Blue said returning his squirtle. "It looks like you've got some work cut out for you. Not off to a great start if your starter won't even listen to you!" He patted me on the back. "Good luck." He made a beeline for the door.

"Not so fast there Gary," Professor Oak cut him off. "You're my grandson and as such. I know how impulsive you can be." He snatched Blue's pokeball out of his hand. "Which is why I'm going to be locking up your pokémon. Both of yours," he finished meeting my eyes. "I don't want either of you getting any ideas about starting before your graduation tomorrow. You boys are going to graduate!"

"Of course Oak," I began. "Would it be possible for me to view charmander's League report? Maybe that can give me an idea of why he's so..."

"Sure Red," his face softened. "Although you don't have to keep charmander. I'm truly sorry he attacked you." Oak led us out of the bunker and back to his office. "In fact, I'm not sure I can in good conscience let you go with that volatile of a starter. Most aren't that aggressive, even dragon starters. Well as close as you can call a charmander a dragon starter."

Blue was watching me intently. I could see the challenge in his eyes. If I traded up for a different starter, even a different charmander, it wouldn't be the same. I'd be taking the easy way out. And I couldn't let Blue go thinking I was taking the easy way out of anything.

"No, Professor," I began. "I think I'll keep him. It'll be difficult, but he'll be worth it."

"Red, really I insist. I'll put a rush order on your starter and everything." We continued to make our way through the maze that was his laboratory.

"I insist Professor." He studied the steely determination in my eyes.

"Fine," he threw his hands up in the air. "If the two of you insist on this fool-hardy rivalry and end up killing yourselves over it. So be it!"

"And on that note, I'm going to go get my stuff packed for tomorrow," Blue interjected before he disappeared out the door.

Oak led me into his office where we sat down and he tapped away on the keyboard for a few minutes. He turned the monitor around so I could read it.

It was the League report that certified that they had approved my charmander that it was trained well enough and had the correct temperament to be a beginning trainers starter pokemon.

Correct on one, wrong on the other. Although I'm not sure I'd consider myself a beginning trainer. I'd had all kinds of battling and training experience working on Oak's ranch.

The report stated that the breeding facility had no abnormal aggression issues outside of what was considered normal for a charmander and that there were no previous incidents with any of its handlers.

Professor Oak even verified that the charmander in the pokeball was the same one listed in the report and that there was not any kind of mix-up in the delivery process.

Further down in the report it listed its heritage. Its mother was a wild charizard from Charicific Valley. A protected wildlife reservation within the orange islands. His mother was not one of the largest in the valley, although she still dwarfed many of the largest males, but she was one of the fiercest battlers. His father was from a fourth ring championship team from Cerulean.

Which told me three things. My starter loved to battle, my starter was very intelligent, and my starter didn't like me.

Later on that evening the entire Oak family (myself included) gathered around the dining room table for one last meal together.

Growing up, the one thing that we could always count on from Professor Oak was that he ate dinner with us. No matter how busy he got at the lab, he always came home in time for us to eat dinner as a family. Even if it meant he had to turn right around and go back to work at the lab after.

Oak sat at the head of the table, with Blue and me on either side of him. Daisy was next to Blue and Mimey was next to me.

It was a pleasant dinner. We didn't dare discuss the elephant in the room. The fact that tomorrow night, it would just be Oak and Daisy dining at the table.

We talked about Daisy preparing for contesting. The contest halls in Fuschia, and Vermillion would be finished within the next few months. Adding to the halls already completed in Saffron, Celadon, and Goldenrod. It had taken years for Hoenn and Indigo to work through the issues that had been caused by the Burning, but contesting was slowly gaining in popularity. Having an Oak be a major player in the new sport was certainly helping.

Eventually the main course gave way to dessert and Oak permitted Blue and I both a single glass of wine. He gave us a knowing look as he set them down.

Oak let us eat our ice cream for a few moments before he cleared his throat and picked up his wine glass.

"Boys," he began. "It has been...a trial raising the two of you. You've both put your fair share of gray hairs on this head," he chuckled and ducked his head showing the remaining hair on his head had turned from the same brown that Gary had to a now mottled gray. "I had no idea that at my age I would get the privilege of raising the two of you into the young men you are today."

The professor took a breath before continuing. "Red, I had no idea that all those years ago when you mom first brought you to the diner that it would come to this. You are smart and from what I saw from your battle earlier you're going to be a great trainer." He smiled. "Just like I said that night in the diner." Oak chuckled. "Of course that's if you can train your starter properly. You're like a second grandson to me."

Oak turned to Blue. "Gary, I knew you were a handful, but you're parents weren't kidding when they said you could outrun an arcanine. Every day you grow to look like and act like your father more and more. It's almost uncanny. You are incredibly smart and already a great battler. You would make both of them proud."

Professor Oak lifted up his wine glass and Blue, Daisy and I followed suit. "To Red and Blue, may your battles be hard-fought. Good luck my boys."

We toasted and Blue and I downed our entire glasses.

As I laid in bed that night. I had a stark realization. Tonight was my last night at home. After tonight, I likely wouldn't see Oak, Daisy, Mimey, or even Blue for a long time.

I woke up the next morning with squawking in my ear. I opened a bleary eye and saw my pidgey alarm clock cuckooing.

Today was going to be a long day.

I went down to the kitchen. It was almost empty except for Daisy making waffles.

"Good morning Red!" She said with way too much energy for this early in the morning.

"Where's everyone else?" I stifled a yawn.

"Blue is still asleep. No surprise there. And Grandpa is in his office. Can you let Blue know that Grandpa wants him?"

I nodded and disappeared back upstairs.

"Blue!" I pounded on his bedroom door which opened a crack. "Oak wants you!"

I pushed the door the rest of the way opened. The room was empty. I turned around thinking he went to the bathroom when I slipped downstairs, but two things caught my eye. The first was that Blue's bed was perfectly made. Never in my ten years of living with the Oaks had I ever seen Blue's bed made. The second was that Blue's desk which he had meticulously laid out his plans for his circuit journey was practically empty. None of which he actually let me view following that disastrous argument where we decided we were not going to travel together.

Blue was gone. His window was open, a soft breeze blowing in the morning air. He left early. Oak was going to be pissed.

I say his desk was practically empty, because in his haste to leave he left part of a map tacked above it. It was three-fourths of a map of Indigo, missing the far west portion of Johto. Red pencil marked lines criss-crossed across both sides of the Metal Mountains connecting all of the major cities that had a gym. The red lines had been erased and redrawn countless times across the map to the point that it was hard to tell what his actual route would be.

One thing I could tell from the map though was that it interconnected all sixteen gyms.

Sixteen gyms. Blue was challenging the entire circuit. Fucking overachiever. I can't say that I was very surprised. It fit right in with everything I knew about Blue.

I very briefly entertained the thought of doing the same thing. If only to prove to Blue that I was just as good a trainer as he was. Especially after our battle yesterday.

I already had my route figured out. It was too late to go back and completely redesign my gym challenges. I was leaving today.

I glanced around the room to try and get a hint of what he was planning. There was a single pokeball sticker in the middle of Ilex forest in Johto. The only pokémon in that forest were primarily bug type which I didn't really peg Blue for the kind of trainer to want one on his championship team.

"Professor!" I called down as I ran down the stairs and burst into his office.

"Gary," the professor said his back to me as he picked up a pokeball from the shelf behind his desk. "There's something of your father's that I'd like yo-". Oak stopped short as he realized he wasn't talking to his actual grandson.

"Red," Oak started his cheeks flushing. "I'm sorry I thought you were Gary." He quickly hid the red and white pokeball behind his back, but not before I caught the dark type icon just above the release button.

"Is...is that one of his father's pokemon?"

Oak was silent for a moment as he wrestled with what to say. "Yes, it is."

"You kept this from him?" I asked surprised. "You know how much he's wanted one of his father's pokemon."

"Red, you don't understand."

"This isn't about you playing favorites or anything if that's what you're thinking. I know he's your grandson."

Oak sighed. "I always planned on giving it to him as a graduation present."

"Well, it doesn't matter. He's gone."

"Gone?" The color drained out of Oak's face.

"Gone. He's nowhere to be found. His room is all cleared out, including all of his travel plans. Did you know he was planning on challenging all sixteen gyms?"

"He had briefly mentioned it. I didn't think he was completely serious. Gary has always been very ambitious though. There's no way he could have left. I have his starter and pokedex locked up at the lab."

The video-phone on the desk rang. Oak hastily picked it up. An aide in a white lab coat appeared on the screen.

"Sorry, Professor. I know you're busy preparing for the graduation ceremony, but I thought you might want to take a look at this."

There was tapping on the other end and the aide's face was replaced with surveillance video. I watched as Blue let himself in from a side door in the lab and stealthily make his way to Oak's office. He picked the lock on the door before disappearing inside and reappearing in less than a minute later with a single pokeball and pokedex in hand. He paused and spoke directly to the camera before quietly making his way back outside through the same door. The cameras outside caught him heading towards the north gate.

"This is exactly why I locked up your starters." Oak put his head in his hands and sighed. "What's he saying?"

"Check the top left drawer," I said after the aide rewound the video again.

Professor Oak pulled open the drawer in his desk and pulled out an envelope. Gramps was written in Blue's perfectly neat handwriting. Just like my letter.

"Thank you Jeffrey," Oak dismissed the aide and cleared the video-phone with a swipe of his hand.

"It appears that Gary was very busy last night," I said after a moment.

"Indeed. His father's pokémon was supposed to be a present, but I think he's proven he isn't mature enough for it yet. You can go finish getting ready Red. I'll pick up your starter and pokedex on my way to the ceremony. I suppose I'll only have one grandson graduating today."

"Does this mean I am now the number one grandson? Or at least number one in the class?"

Oak smiled for just a moment before it turned into a frown and he waved me off.

I ran upstairs and dressed in my traveling clothes. Blue jeans held up with a magnetic belt for pokeballs, and a dark green shirt.

I paused halfway out the door with my pack for the journey on my shoulder. I ducked back in and rummaged through old boxes from my childhood house before I found it. The one thing in my possession that was my father's. A red cap. I tucked it into my pack before taking one last look around the room and thundered down the stairs.

Graduation was deflated without the town's most popular and thought to be most successful student.

Throughout the ceremony it felt like there was something missing, other than Blue of course. It took me until I was in line to receive my diploma to figure out what it was. My mother wasn't there to witness it.

Oak was still proud of me. Although I could still see he was disappointed when he thought I wasn't paying attention.

During the reception, I received more questions about Blue's whereabouts than congratulations.

Eventually it wore down and those of us that were challenging the gym circuit were ushered to the northern gate.

"Good luck, Red," Daisy pulled me into a hug. "You've been a great second little brother."

"Good luck Red," Professor Oak echoed. He shook my hand for a moment before pulling me into a big hug. "I'm so proud of you. I know your mom would be too. You're going to do great." He dug into his lab coat and pulled out a pokeball the size of a ping pong ball and a red metallic pokedex the size of a small book. "You'll probably need these."

I clipped the pokeball to my belt and slid the pokedex into my pocket before turning toward the gates. All of the other new trainers had already disappeared out the gate.

I took that first step out into the wilds and the gate shut behind me with a loud clang. I kicked up the dust as I walked along the dirt road north to Route One.

Honestly, compared to what I imagined this moment would be for nearly a decade. It was completely anticlimactic.

**The following is an abstract of the Pokedex Entry #4 Charmander**

**The charmander evolutionary line is unique among fire types in that its hearth, the organ that is responsible for its ability to manipulate fire, is outside of its body. Charmander is completely cold-blooded, instead of its body being warmed by the sun, it is warmed by its hearth. The hearth is responsible for its blood's viscosity. If the pokemon's body drops below a certain temperature its blood becomes to thick for its heart to pump resulting in cardiac failure.**

**From the moment a charmander hatches from an egg, sulphurous gasses within the tip of its tail react with the oxygen in the air igniting the tail. Oxygen is only necessary for the lighting of the tail. Once the flame is lit, it starts a positive feedback loop that constantly generates sulphurous and methane gasses that will fuel the tail's flame.I**

**The gasses combined with sparking caused by a pair of flint-like teeth in the back of its throat allow the pokémon to create their combustive attacks that they are known for.**

**There is much debate within the scientific community whether the charmander family is considered a dragon type. The general consensus is that it was at one point in its past a primarily dragon type and secondary fire type, and the typing switched when they began to settle near volcanoes. The dragon typing does not technically come into play until its final evolution.**

**The charmander line also has one of the slowest evolutions being part dragon type. They primarily live within volcanic or mountainous areas and are carnivores. Their diet is supplemented by minerals that they absorb when they ingest stones. The stomach is heavily protected and is super-heated to the point that it melts the stones until they are molten which is the point at which the minerals are absorbed. The leftover molten stone is than stored in a small sac next to its stomach.**

* * *

**So that's another chapter down. See? Technically Red and Blue have both already started their journeys. This whole story has kind of morphed into its own thing and I'm trying logic and rationalize my way through it, including characterization and background, as best I can.**

**If you guys like the pokedex entries, check out the full version on the companion fic Pokedex: The Anthology**

**Anyway, what did you guys think? How did the battle turn out? I know this chapter was a bit on the sappy side, but Red's going to be gone for a long time. And he's finally grown up. **


	5. One Road to Viridian

**A/N: Here's Chapter 5. I'm not exactly as happy with it as I could be, but it works. I hope you like it nonetheless. **

**Trials of a Trainer**

**Chapter 5: One Route to Viridian**

I was a little surprised that I didn't run into any of the other new trainers ahead of me. I kept walking along the path worn into the ground from countless other trainers before me.

My pack was full of supplies, but didn't weigh nearly as heavily as the pokeball on my waist. I wasn't scared of my starter, I just had a very healthy amount of respect for him. Nonetheless I still was a bit wary of encountering any wild pokémon.

Pallet was built within a valley, nestled between the foothills of the Metal Mountains to the East, the Sea to the south, Viridian to the North, and the Wilds to the west. Every direction except north invited danger. The further away from Pallet one traveled, the more dangerous the pokemon one encountered.

Which was part of the reason why I was glad that I was going north with the hellion in my pocket.

Half an hour after I left Pallet, I encountered an intersection of routes. North and South was Route One which ran from Pallet town to Viridian. West was Route 117 an offshoot of Route 17 which the famous cycling road that helped to connect Celadon with Fuschia. East was Old Route 22 that wound its way through the foothills of the Metal Mountains.

There were fresh footprints going in all directions. The rest of the new trainers had all split off. I was a bit surprised none of them converged on each other to battle.

I continued north. I heard pokémon rustling in the bushes and trees above. More than once I locked eyes with a pair of glowing yellow eyes, or saw a pidgey hopping from branch to branch. They didn't bother me though.

A few hours later, dusk began to settle and I stopped to set up camp. It was still early summer and cool out, and the sky was clear so I decided to forgo my tent.

I gathered enough firewood for the night and stood in front of it.

I released charmander, but kept the pokeball firmly in my hand and my body tensed to jump out of the way in case he decided to throw a fireball at me.

Charmander snorted a smoke ring at me. I relaxed a bit. He side-eyed my small campfire before lazily dropping his tail into the kindling setting it alight. He turned to me and opened his maw and sparked the back of his throat. As if in warning.

I was not about to be intimidated by my own pokemon. I was not afraid of my starter, and it was time he understood that.

Different pokemon species require different amounts of force to show them that they need to submit. Some species needed a show of physical dominance to accept training. Dragons were sometimes among these species, and mine was a very stubborn one.

I caught charmander completely off guard. One moment he was standing there swaying his tail back and forth, idly watching the flame dance. The next moment I had kicked him flat-footed right in the chest.

The fire pokémon's eyes went wide as he fell flat on his back, his tail curved out along the side. I was on top of him an instant later.

My starter was a little over three feet tall, which means my five and a half foot frame towered over him. However he made up that difference by being pure muscle.

Charmander let out a roar and pure sulphur and brimstone filled my nose. He bucked and wiggled to try and squeeze himself out from under me, but I held firm. I punched him right in his snout. The scales scraped against my knuckles and I could feel the heat in his jaw.

"I am your trainer. You listen to me," I grunted.

The fire pokemon growled and opened its maw, ready to blowtorch my face.

I tapped the button on the pokeball in my hand and the laser tagged him in the side. A second later the charmander disintegrated and I fell a few inches to the ground with a thump.

I stood up and caught my breath and dug around in my pack for a water bottle.

I tapped the button the pokeball again and charmander reappeared on the ground in the same position. A small gout of flame erupted from his mouth. Not enough to do any real damage, but just enough to burn off my eyebrows.

An instant later I was on top of him again. He struggled more than last time, but I managed to hold him sideways and pinned his tail underneath one arm. In one hand I had his pokeball and the other the water bottle.

I unscrewed the cap off the water bottle with my mouth and spat it off to the side. He understood what I was doing and let out a roar and struggled more.

I held him to the ground as I slowly poured water onto his tail flame. It hissed and sputtered, but there wasn't any real chance of it going out. I wasn't about to kill my starter.

Charmander roared and scratched at my back, shredding the tough flaffy wool of my shirt. I heard the tell-tale click of the flint-stones in the back of his throat and leapt off of him instead of returning him.

Another gout of flame erupted from his open jaws, more powerful than the first.

"I am your trainer," I said forcefully. "You will listen to me. You will obey me. The trainer trains the pokemon, not the other way around."

Charmander snorted again before he climbed to his feet. He eyed the pokeball in my hand. He was more wary of the pokeball than the water bottle I just doused him with.

I moved the pokeball to the left, his eyes followed it, I moved it to the right, he followed it. I flashed the laser on the ground and he scampered to the opposite side of the fire.

"You don't like being disintegrated, do you?" I asked.

Charmander glared at me. He hated the pokeball more than the water.

"Unfortunately, that's something you're going to have to get over," I told him as I wandered back over to my pack and dug inside it again before I pulled out a small bag of dry food and a bowl. "I'm not sure why you don't like pokeballs. You're league bred so you've dealt with them your entire life." I measured some food into the bowl and slid it across. "You're going to have to get over the pokeball thing because people will probably be pretty scared if I'm toting a fire-breathing charizard behind me."

Charmander paused in his eating to give me an inscrutable look and snorted another smoke ring before he returned to his food.

I sat down with my back against a tree. "I suppose that's enough torture for one night."

Charmander wasn't going to obey me simply with a single show of force. I was simply trying to get the message across that he wasn't going to get his way. We'll see tomorrow how much he actually listens to me.

I dug around in my pack and pulled out a small bag of trail mix and my pokedex. I'd handled pokedexes before, I was allowed one as a special field hand/researcher for Oak when I helped out on the ranch. They were standard models, had some newer software but was basically the same as the original Oak released years ago.

The one I held in my hands was a different one. It was newer. A little slimmer and a bit smaller than the other one. I opened it up, and it definitely was a newer one. Instead of a small monochromatic square screen and an array of buttons on both sides it was two full sized led touchscreens. One new feature was a small camera on the upper front corner. It still retained the same iconic metallic red coloring on it.

I fiddled around with it. It had a lot more features than the original pokedex had including a word processor, a functional messaging system, a more intuitive database app and a dozen other feature I had barely begun to discover.

I opened up the messaging system and saw that I already had nearly a dozen new messages.

Most of them were from trainer corporations desperately trying to get me to sign at the last minute. I deleted them without a second thought, not even bothering to open them.

One was from the League officially welcoming me as a recognized trainer and wishing me the best of luck on my challenge. They also included a number of different attachments reiterating everything from how gym challenges worked to how to catch pokémon.

One was from Professor Oak.

_Red,_

_Congrats again on your big day. I'm so proud of you._

_As you've probably noticed the pokedex that I sent with you was not the same model as the one you are used to. It's the new 2.0 model that is due out within a few months. I've elected to use both you and Gar-Blue as field beta testers._

_There's some background information that I wanted to let you know about with the pokedex. The download/upload speed from the League database has been dramatically improved. The onboard software is smart enough to identify most pokemon from a shot from the camera. It will sync up with cell towers, and depending on its mood the single League satellite in space if you are in a remote location._

_The most important thing though is that since you are technically a League researcher under my laboratory, you have access to the Ranger Network. It's an app that has been preloaded onto the pokedex. It allows you access to ranger reports along the routes which range from natural disasters to wild pokémon attacks. They are considering creating an app for trainers with this information and are wanting feedback._

_Also, I've given you developer access so you can edit whatever code as you see fit and I'll get a copy of the changelog back at the lab._

_Good luck!_  
_-Oak_

_P.S. I've also attached everything I have on your starter since you seem set in wanting to try and train it._

I ignored the last message for now. I knew who it was from and what it was going to be about.

I opened the attachment it had the same stuff that I went over with Oak. Which reiterated what we already knew about charmander's parentage. One was a league champion and the other was a wild charizard. What it also mentioned was that my charmander's grandparents were also charizard not charmeleon. One of those was also a fourth ring league champion, one was from charicific valley, and the other two were from the cinnabarean volcano.

Which wouldn't have made a difference except that Oak had included an article co-written by scientists at the valley and the volcano. The article asserted that charmander and charmeleon while being technically pure fire types and didn't grow into their draconic typing until their final evolution they still exhibited draconic tendencies. These tendencies were exacerbated when it's parentage were charizard instead of charmeleon. The parentage saw an increase in activated latent dragon genes. Genes that normally didn't activate until the final evolution. The article made a point of saying that just because more of these genes were activated doesn't mean that the pre-evolution's typing would change.

I pulled up everything my pokedex had on charizard. Most of which I already knew, I had done my research on my starter of course. What I didn't know was that there was a phenomenon known as dragon rage.

Dragon rage was a natural instinct of dragons. It was their instinct to incite challenge, and battle. It was the primary reason they had evolved to be the top apex predators. Which also leads to arrogance.

I smirked when I read that and glanced over at my now sleeping starter. Charmander was curled into a ball, his tail wrapped around him. The flame lightly flickering by his nose.

The pokedex insinuated that charizard would only battle under those trainers it deemed worthy enough of commanding its powers.

I connected the dots in an instant. My charmander exemplified the early activation of certain dragon genes. My starter was arrogant and headstrong because he was already coming into his dragon rage. Which despite knowing didn't make it any easier to train him.

I glanced up at the sky. The stars were out and the moon was bright. It was getting late. But there were two things I still needed to do.

I pulled up the ranger network app to see what Oak was talking about.

The interface itself wasn't too bad. It had an overhead view of my current locations with flags popping up over generalized areas with a gradient from green to red depending on the danger.

On route one there were a couple of incidents. All ranging from green to yellow.

One was a trainer being gored and poisoned by a nidorina after wandering too close to their nest. They're lucky it wasn't the queen or they probably wouldn't be breathing.

The second was a war between a beedrill hive and a combee hive. A group from one hive strayed too far into another's territory. Dozens of wild pokémon were injured and trees fell during the fight.

I moved the map to the Viridian Forest. I was confident in my ability to not drop into danger on Route One. Viridian Forest would be a different matter.

There were plenty of incidents flagged, but there were two dark orange ones that caught my attention.

The first was a trainer that had been shredded to the point he was almost unrecognizable. He was cleaved from sternum to waist and had lacerations covering him from head to toe. His skin was flayed. The odd part was though within a few of his wounds they found seeds.

The rangers were at a complete loss as to what caused it. They weren't sure whether it was some bug pokemon in the forest. Or one particularly nasty fairy pokemon. They weren't all sunshine and sprinkles. There were species that were scarier than some dark pokemon.

The app also noted that it was the third trainer in the last two months that they had found in this condition.

The second was that a pair of trainers had made a small campfire in the forest. Which normally was okay as long you were aware of your surroundings, some bug pokemon were attracted to the light and you had to be cognizant of dealing with them. This pair was not. While this couple were busy being amorous in their tent their fire was left unattended. It attracted a pair of venomoth that decided to be amorous over the fire.

Naturally, lots of toxic and poisonous fumes were emitted during the affair. The fumes also are apparently very flammable.

Eventually the fumes came into contact with the fire and the venemoths, the tent and it's busy occupants, the whole clearing exploded in a ball of flame.

Which resulted in a small forest fire.

I switched out of the app and pulled up a news app. More out of procrastination than anything. I didn't want to open up that last message.

But of course, I still wasn't able to avoid thinking about it because Blue ended up in the news.

Not on the front page or anything, that wouldn't come until later. He did have some small blurbs across a few sites.

It made waves today when Blue skipped graduation. There were a few reporters there that were wanting to speak to who they considered the best next-up-and-coming trainer. They wanted to see how he was going to follow in his father's footsteps. They didn't care to speak to the adopted Oak that was there of course.

The reporters did manage to catch Blue when he made it to Viridian. There was a picture of him strolling through the gates looking every bit the perfect pokemon master. His squirtle was at his feet, he had a pidgey perched on a shoulder and an ekans wrapped all the way down his arm.

It takes eight to sixteen hours to make it to Viridian from Pallet. Blue's a great trainer, but there's no way that he managed to train to feral pokemon to obey him that faster. Which would explain his disheveled look and the twig in his air at dinner last night. He'd been training them in secret.

I glanced at my watch. It was almost midnight. I'd put it off long enough. I quickly pulled up the messaging app and pulled up Blue's message.

_Red,_

_I figured I'd try and beat you to the punch and send this out. Knowing you, there was a fifty-fifty shot you'd find a tree to sit against and tinker with the pokedex ten minutes into the start of your journey._

_Did you know these 'dexes have a voice message function? I found out this morning when Gramps sent me a blistering tongue lashing about me cutting out early. Going on about how he raised me better than this. My ears are still ringing._

_He doesn't understand though. I'm sure the only one that does is you, that instinctual need to climb ever higher. I needed to leave, I had been waiting for years. I couldn't wait almost another day to start. Don't you dare try and tell me that you wouldn't do the same. I know that would be a bold-faced lie. I've seen the thought cross your mind numerous times over the past year._

_That wasn't my only reasoning of course. You know I don't go off and do things half-cocked. My leaving was a bit impulsive, but there was an underlying reason behind it. One that I'm sure you'll figure out soon enough. If you haven't already that is._

_I'm headed to Pewter to start off before I cross the mountains. Maybe with some space between Gramps and I he'll cool off a bit. I'm sure we'll run into each other eventually. At the very least I know I'll see you at the Plateau._

_Smell ya later,_  
_-Blue_

I put up the pokedex and rolled over to finally go to sleep. As I was drifting off I connected the dots that Blue was talking about. He was always thinking three steps ahead. Badges were one of the most important things you needed to take the Grand Championship, but you also needed public support. Positive publicity was easiest way to help garner it.

I woke up early the next morning as the sun was cresting over the horizon. I sat up and yawned. Poking around at the base of the tree I sat against last night was a brown and tan pidgey that was about one and a half feet tall. It was eating the bits of trail mix that had fallen, and it was completely oblivious to the sleeping charmander on the other side of the smoldering fire.

I slowly stood up, working out the cramps and kinks from sleeping on the hard ground. The pidgey eyed me warily but continued to pick at the remains of the trail mix.

Blue was already at least two pokémon ahead of me. There was no telling what he had managed to catch on his route east since he sent me that message. I needed to catch up.

I dug into my bag and pulled out a pokeball. All new trainers were issued five of them along with their pokedex and starter.

I kicked charmander to wake him up. I still needed to figure out a name for him. He glared at me and snorted a smoke ring. He was evidently not a morning pokemon.

"Scratch it!" I shouted and pointed at the flapping pidgey.

I half expected the bird pokemon to simply take off into the air, but it just stood stock-still. Completely in shock.

With a growl charmander took a swipe at the pidgey and sent the bird talons-over-beak against a tree trunk.

The pidgey righted itself tried to flap its wings, but one of its wings was bent at an unnatural angle.

Charmander dropped to all fours and sprinted across the trail floor.

I tapped the button on the pokeball to ready it.

He would kill the pokemon if I wasn't quick enough.

The pokeball pinged in my hand and I hurled it at the small pokemon.

It nailed the poor pidgey right in the head. The sound of a static crash filled the air as the bird pokemon was sucked into the pokeball.

Charmander let out a frustrated growl as he bowled right over where the pidgey was and lost his footing. He ended up rolling out of sight into the nearby trees.

I ignored him. I already had a second pokeball in my hand primed and ready as I watched the first steadily roll on the ground.

Five seconds past before it stopped and the pokeball pinged twice in quick succession that it was a successful capture.

I let out a breath that I wasn't aware I was holding. I had caught my first pokémon!

I mean it was a pidgey, and not even a very big one at that. It was still a capture though.

I didn't think he would be a good fit for the Team. Not when I would eventually have a fire-breathing flyer on my team, but he would be helpful still in catching other pokémon and challenging trainers.

Charmander chose that moment to come waltzing back into the clearing. He was growling and completely ignored me. I had hoped that after last night something would change in him, but he was just too volatile to listen to orders. Volatile.

It almost summed him perfectly. He obviously would listen to me, he attacked when I told him to...sometimes. But he was still too headstrong to do it properly. Or he could be set off just as easily like a match to gasoline.

"Volatile," I said aloud. "Volatile," I repeated slowly. Letting it roll off my lips. I turned to where charmander stood once again playing with his tail-flame. He looked up at me. "Volatile. That's your name."

He snorted at me before turning back to his flame.

"Volatile!" I said sharply. "You will listen to me." I took a step toward him.

He blew another smoke ring at me, but he evidently remembered something from last night because bowed his head. It wasn't much, but it was something.

I released pidgey. It hobbled around flapping it's one good wing.

I scanned it with the pokedex and within ten seconds it had pulled up what the database had on pidgey.

I scrolled through it, while keeping one eye on the pokemon.

Most of the stuff I already knew. Pidgey was one of the most common pokémon in the world. Which doesn't say very much about my capture.

The pokedex did have a nifty feature where it can compare pokemon to the average in the database. I compared my pidgey to the database mine was slightly smaller than average. I hoped it would grow.

I returned pidgey and turned to Volatile. He was glaring at me. I watched him walk around the clearing for a moment before returning him to his pokeball. He was going to have to get used to it. I wasn't about to get slowed down on this journey because of his stubby little legs.

I quickly broke down camp and was back on the route within fifteen minutes.

A few more hours passed. I didn't run into any trouble. I figured I had less than an hour left before I made it to Viridian when I ran into the first human I'd seen on the route.

He was standing off to the side in the shadows of some trees.

"Hi there trainer!" The man said stepping out of the trees. "Woah!" He put his hands up, he held a single spray canister in one hand and had a backpack slung across his back. "I'm not here to battle you! I'm giving out free samples."

"Free samples?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yup. Courtesy of Team Rocket," he said and moved his backpack strap out of the way to show a ruby red 'R' embroidered across his right breast.

Team Rocket was the reason behind Giovanni not taking the Elite Four membership offered to him following Lance's ascension to the throne. He had been gone from his hometown for many years, and after seeing it destroyed in the Burning, all he wanted to do was help repay it for all that it had done for him.

He did this by creating a charity, which eventually became Team Rocket. They were small at first, they helped Viridian to rebuild and move past the tragedy. But they grew bigger and helped more.

When a pair of gyarados attacked Cerulean and destroyed the western half of the city, including dropping the famous nugget bridge arena into the river below. Team Rocket helped with search and rescue that day. They also helped with rebuilding eventually building a brand new state of the art arena over the river.

Over and over again. Whenever a natural disaster struck, or a wild pokémon attacked a town or city, Team Rocket was there to help pickup the pieces.

They even began to expand into Johto the last couple of years.

Team Rocket's main mission harkened back to the pre-brink days when man walked on the moon. They strived to ensure that mankind would not go extinct. In the modern world, that meant ensuring the monsters that roamed our world did not completely destroy us.

I wouldn't learn until much much later exactly how far they would go to achieve this.

I took the potion from the man and thanked him before continuing on my way arriving in Viridian in the late morning.

The city brought back many memories. Most of them were not good. I didn't want to stay in the city for long if I could help it.

My first stop was the memorial for the Burning. I half-debated on skipping it entirely, but I decided I owed it to Mom to check it out.

It was a small simple structure. A pokeball sat atop a pedestal. On either side of the pedestal were a pair of stone tablets that the names of those lost on that day were etched in. Just below the pedestal was a small bronze plaque.

To those that lost their lives on one of Viridian's darkest days. We remember you and we will never forget you.

At the very bottom of the pedestal was another plaque.

This memorial was sponsored by a very generous contribution from Team Rocket

Another example of Team Rocket's "giving" heart. The memorial was one of the organization's first attempts at giving back to the community. Hence why it was so small compared to the memorial for the Razing.

I only now consider the irony of Team Rocket building a memorial to commemorate that day.

But that will come later.

I spent a short while at the memorial, long enough to find mother's name. I also spent the time to find Blue's parents because I doubted he spent the time to come here and find them.

My next stop was the Viridian City Gym. I had only been here once before, the day after that horrible day. I had tried to block out most of those memories which is why it came as a bit of a surprise when I walked headfirst into a giant statue of a pokemon.

Encircling the gym, were large life-size metallic statues of pokemon. Nidoking, heracross, arcanine, steelix, and almost a dozen others lined the front of the gym. These were the immortalized statues of the previous gym leaders' best pokémon. In front of each pokemon was a small plaque that listed their trainers name, the years they were gym leader, and how many rings they had earned. Not every gym leader had one, some leaders had a shorter tenure than others, but the most accomplished ones did.

It came as no surprise then, when I stopped in front of the newest addition to the statues. It was Giovanni's aerodactyl. It stood poised, ready to take to the air, or slash the onlooker without a second's notice.

I tried the gym's doors. Of course they were locked.

Giovanni's gym was not the most popular in the region, in fact it was probably the least. This was due in part to the fact that he was often away on business helping to run and grow Team Rocket.

Which was fine, because the second reason was because he was one of the most difficult leaders to win a badge from.

Each gym leader is given complete autonomy over how they run their gym. Their job is to teach trainers how to survive an encounter with a wild pokémon of their type specialty. One of the ways this can be taught is by trial through combat where the trainer challenges the gym leader. The gym leader is allowed to choose the rules and format of the battles as long as they adhere to the type specialty with a few exceptions.

Most gym leaders will scale their pokemon with the amount of badges the challenger has. Giovanni does not.

Giovanni's chosen rules and format is always the same, a simple six-on-six battle. Which quickly becomes complicated since his team is always the same team, his championship team.

As such I'm sure it should be pretty obvious that I didn't intend to challenge Giovanni for his badge. Today at least. My bad-tempered charmander and pidgey that may or may not still have a concussion from the pokeball throw would be slaughtered in less than ten seconds.

Despite that I still was hoping to catch a glimpse of the would-be-champion in a battle. If only to try to begin to formulate some strategy to beat him.

My perfectly formulated plan across Kanto would eventually bring me right back here to Viridian to challenge Giovanni for his badge. I figured it would be good practice for when I eventually face Blue.

I needed to be on my way. Evening was quickly approaching and I didn't fancy the idea of staying in the city overnight. It brought up too many bad memories. I also wanted to try and catch up to Blue as fast as I could.

I briefly stopped in front of grandfather's house and debated about letting him see the kind of red I could put in his eyes with Volatile. But he wasn't worth it.

Before leaving the city was the pokémon mart. I stocked up on more supplies, five more pokeballs, and a few potions and antidotes. I also made sure to buy a large steelix-steel knife. It was a pretty penny, but I wanted to be ready for whatever Viridian Forest was going to throw at me.

I didn't have a lot of money to start my journey out with, whatever I had saved working at the ranch, plus a nice graduation gift from Oak. I hoped that I could stretch it to be able to afford the registration fees for the first gym.

My last stop was the pokémon center, which thanks to my lovely tax paying dollars and the fact that I was a league registered trainer meant that I didn't have to pay a thing.

"Welcome to the Pokemon Center!" The nurse said entirely too cheerfully when I walked in. "How can I help you?"

"I have a pidgey with a broken wing," I unclipped the pokeball from my belt and handed it across the counter. "He's a fresh capture though, so he might be a little jumpy. If possible I'd like to leave tonight."

"Mmhmm," the nurse said with a smile taking the pokeball and disappeared behind a door.

I decided against them healing Volatile. It would probably take longer than I would like, and he didn't really get injured at all in the battle. Whatever sore muscles he got from our little fight he was just going to have to deal with.

The nurse returned a half hour later with my pidgey. She explained that I was lucky. The break was a clean one and that it was easily set. A direct injection of potion to the bone, and a generous spray to the wing later and the break had been mended and the skin and muscle repaired.

The wonders of modern medicine.

She did warn me that overuse of potions and other aggressive healing products would cause my pokemon to eventually grow resistant to them.

The fight against antibiotic resistance was where a good chunk of Hoenn's Devon and our Silph Co's research and development budgets went into. They developed and reformulated potions constantly to try and combat it, but it was still feared that one day they would be completely resistant against it.

I thanked the nurse and left the pokemon center and headed to the northern gates.

Dusk was settling in, and Viridian Forest loomed ahead of me.

It was where a childhood memory would be fulfilled, and where I would find the second member of my Team.

**The following is an excerpt from Pokedex Entry #16 Pidgey**

**Pidgey and its evolutions are perhaps the most common of all bird pokemon. They are found in every region to some degree. This is perhaps because they can adapt to survive almost everywhere.  
Their normal habitats are forestry or grassy areas. However they have also been found on remote islands and even within the high peaks of mountains.**

**Pidgey are known to be omnivores, unlike other bird pokemon like fearow that are scavengers, or skarmory that are carnivores. This no doubt contributes to their nativeness to far reaching regions. They are also prey for many pokémon.**

**When a pidgey first hatches, it begins to hop around and flaps its wings to slowly build up their muscles. They mainly eat berries and other fruits. Those that live woodsy areas will also hunt and eat bug pokemon such as caterpie and wurmple. Their favorite bug pokemon are metapod because of its undergoing transformation the cocoon pokemon is full of nutrients.**

**Pidgey are one of the pokémon that reach sexual maturity prior to their evolution. This is one of the main reasons that the bird pokémon is so common. However those pidgey hatched from other pidgey instead of their evolutions are often times much smaller and may have trouble hunting bugs. Most pidgey will build their nests in the low hanging branches or even on the ground. On account of this, there must be a pidgey guarding the nest at all times. The mother and father will take turns guarding it while the other hunts or brings back food.**

**On account of how common they are, pidgey and its evolutions are also very easily trained. This is why for centuries there has been the Pidgey-Parcel Service to help deliver messages and items across whole regions. This also includes their evolutions which is why the service also eventually evolved itself to including flying people for an exorbitant fee with their highly trained pidgeot.**

**A/N: So what did you guys think of this chapter? Some more world-building and setup for the future, and Red tries to get a handle on his starter. I'm actually really excited for the next two chapters. They're ones that I have been working out the kinks on and thinking about since before I ever got serious about writing this story. **

**Speaking of the next chapter, this is also the point where I have caught up with what I had pre-written. If everything goes according to plan, I should have Chapter 6 finished on schedule for next week. If not, I'll post it as soon as I'm finished. Just giving you guys a fair warning.  
Thanks for reading!**

**Edit on 5-17-20 to change Blue's travel plans. **


	6. A Webby Surprise

**A/N: Here's chapter six! This chapter got so big that I actually had to split it in half. My posting schedule has been all out of wack. We've been working six days a week with lots of overtime for the past couple of weeks, so I haven't had the time, energy or motivation to do as much writing as I would have liked, but finally here it is!**

**Enjoy!**

Trials of a Trainer

Chapter 6: A Webby Surprise

Viridian Forest was about an hour's walk from the city. The grassy fields surrounding Viridian slowly filled up with trees until they lined either side of the route. But this wasn't the forest proper yet.

In front of me lay a large clearing a couple hundred yards wide, and behind that was the ranger station. It was a one story building that looked more like a wall because it ran the entire length of the clearing.

The current ranger station was built around fifty years ago. At the time it was just a small squat square building, but over the decades it expanded to form a barrier between the forest and Route 2.

It was originally built as a stop-gap measure. For centuries bug pokemon had been encroaching on the Viridian settlement. After being overrun by bugs one too many times, the people built a small outpost on the outskirts as an advanced warning and to help defend against the bugs.

The people that ran this outpost, along with many similar outposts throughout the regions eventually formed the modern day pokemon rangers. A division of the League that deals with and keeps track of wild pokémon, along with being first responders to natural and pokemon disasters.

The clearing was filled with small groups of people gathered around campfires or pitching tents. I walked about halfway to the wall before making a small camp next to an elderly man and a group of four Youngsters that were crowded around a small portable television.

As soon as I finished laying out my bedroll the older man waltzed over and sat down in the grass next to me.

"I'm Walter," he introduced himself and held out his hand.

"Red," I shook his hand. I noticed that he had four pokeballs attached to his belt.

"Nice to meet you. You look experienced. How long have you been training pokémon?"

"Two days," I said sheepishly.

"Oh," he said glancing down at my belt that had two pokeballs. "You still look more ready for your journey then they do at least." He jerked a thumb towards the Youngsters.

I glanced at the group of Youngsters. They had sleeping bags sprawled everywhere and bug catcher nets. On the television I could see a man standing in front of a blackboard.

"They call it a Teachy-TV," Walter said beside me. "If they're having to watch a tv at this point to learn about how to train pokémon, they're not ready." He snorted. "They probably don't even know how to throw a pokeball." He looked at me directly in my eyes. "Do you know how to throw a pokeball?"

I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes. "Of course I d-"

"Eh, I'm not talking about simply dinging a rattata in the head from five feet away. I'm talking about what are you going to do when you are out walking in the forest and you run into a rabid granbull?"

"I'm not going to throw a pokeball," I chuckled. "I'm going to run!"

"No!" He shouted and stood up. "See look, imagine if the little pink bastard was right over there." He pointed to a random man standing twenty yards away. "If it was even that far away, you'd barely get ten feet before it tore your leg off from underneath you!"

Everyone was looking at us now. I subtly took a few steps away. This guy was off his rocker. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a few of the rangers begin to head this way.

"Now is when you want to throw the pokeball!" In one perfect motion he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a minimized pokeball, tapped it to full size and threw it as hard as he could. It nailed the random man right in the back of the head.

The man stood up and turned around. I took a few more steps away from Walter. The rangers started running between the groups of people scattered across the grounds.

"If your lucky, the pokeball catches him and that's that. But most people aren't that lucky. So you've probably got maybe five or ten seconds before the pink slobbery demon breaks out of it."

I took a few more steps away. The rangers were almost within range.

"There's two options. The first is you can either run and hope you put enough distance that he doesn't catch you. Not likely." He turned around just in time to watch the rangers tackle him to the ground. They immediately handcuffed him.

"Walter," one of the rangers sighed. "I don't think the Youngsters need your help again." He turned to me. "I'm sorry sir, Walter here likes to come up here and help give advice to new trainers. Which is fine, except when he gets a little too into it and hurts people."

"A pokeball thrown at a guys head?" I asked flabbergasted. "Don't you think arresting him is a little much?"

The ranger sighed. "Ask him what the second option is."

"Walter," I started. They swivelled the man towards me. "What is the second option?"

"You fight it!" He struggled against the rangers and tried to grab a pokeball at his belt. "I've got a magmar that I was going to flamethrower that pink bitch into nothing but a black set of teeth!"

"And he really was about to do that to that poor man," the ranger said as they hauled the old man off to the building. "Come on Walter, you can stay with us. Officer Jankins will be here in the morning for you."

That man has been hit in the head by one too many pokeballs. How the hell is he still allowed to handle pokemon?

The man might have been crazy, but he did have a point. Pokeballs could be used to gain a few extra precious seconds.

With Walter gone, everyone else settled back in for the night. The Youngsters were completely oblivious to the whole thing. Which gave me pause for how well they would do in the forest, even if there were four of them.

I pulled out my pokedex and checked the ranger network to see if there was anything I needed to be on the lookout for.

There wasn't much flagged. The only major incident was another trainer had been cut to shreds in the western part of the forest. The rangers were currently working under the assumption that it was a very sadistic fairy type pokemon. They thought that it was a fairy that was slicing up random humans and then planting seeds in their bodies. Or it was some undiscovered fairy/grass type pokemon. The rangers were considering putting out a forest wide alert advising trainers to be on the lookout for wild fairy types. The sadistic ones gave people nightmares almost as scary as ghost or dark pokemon.

The route I had planned didn't take me into that part of the forest and I was going to keep it that way.

The next morning I woke up as dawn was cresting. I wanted to make as much headway as possible. I packed up my little camp and made my way inside ranger station.

I found myself in a long shotgun style room. A few doors lined the walls that led off into the deeper parts of the station. Two topographic maps lined the walls. One was the entire Kanto/Johto region with ranger stations dotted across the room. The other was an overhead view of the Viridian Forest. I noted that there was a dark orange flag over the same general area that matched the incident I pulled up on my pokedex last night.

Rangers milled about in the area, drinking coffee, and trying to wake up before they had to venture out into the forest.

A small queue had formed near a set of double doors on the other side of the room. A ranger sat at a desk in front scanning pokedexes and IDs.

I silently thanked myself that I had gotten up so early. There was only a line of about a dozen people in front of me, there was at least four times that amount still sleeping outside.

The early pidgey gets the worm.

The ranger scanned my pokedex with no issue and I stepped through into the forest.

I began walking through the forest and it immediately swallowed me up. Whatever trail that Route 2 had eventually led from Viridian to Pewter had long since been eroded away by tree growth. There was no discernable trail at all.

The canopy above was so thick that it blotted out the sky above. Long deep shadows were strewn about amongst the trees.

Bird pokemon were already singing their morning praises. Bug pokemon in the bushes and trees were buzzing. Green, yellow, and red eyes glowed and stared back at me from the darkness.

The dozen or so people that had filed in ahead of me had already disappeared into the trees. There were no signs of them.

I unclipped Volatile's pokeball and released him. He glared at me as we continued to walk northward.

"We're going to get a bit of training. I'd also feel a bit better with you out. I've never been this far north before, or in a forest this dangerous."

The charmander simply ignored me and continued staring out into the trees.

I re-clipped his ball and pulled out the pidgey's and released it.

The little bird pokémon took one look at Volatile and shot off into the air.

I sighed. "I figured that would happen."

My hand shot out and tagged it with the laser and an instant later the bird disintegrated. I tapped the button and pidgey reappeared on the ground.

"You're sa-" I got out before it took off again.

It took three more times of returning and releasing before the bird brain realized it should stop. It still kept one wary eye on Volatile.

I crouched down to get on the same level with the bird pokémon. "You're safe. You're my pokémon now. I'm going to protect you, but you're going to have to fight for me."

Before the pidgey could even think about flying off again I snatched a small handful of the extremely sensitive downy feathers off of its throat.

It was a quick and easy way to train bird pokémon. Bird pokémon had an instinctive feeling to listen and obey when those feathers were pulled. It harkened back to when they were little chicks and their parents would rip their downy throat feathers out when they were about to fall out of a nest.

I watched once in stunned silence as Oak ripped the feathers off an unruly fearow on the ranch. The giant bird pokémon had towered over him and could have skewered his skull with its long beak in an instant. But the crazy old scientist marched up to it and ripped them off with no hesitation, and the fearow cowered before him.

Pidgey looked up at me and cocked its head to the side.

"I'm your trainer. Your name is Sora."

The three of us continued walking through the forest. It was a testament to how easily pidgey were to train, that following our little talk the little bird pokémon didn't give me quite as much trouble. There was a reason after all that we used it and it's evolutions for our national parcel service.

Over the next few hours I worked with both of my pokémon as we trudged through the forest. I worked Sora though simple attacking commands by having him dive through bushes for berries. With Volatile we alternated between practicing slashing attacks with his hindpaws and forepaws, spitting out plumes of fire, and tail whips. Which I knew first hand were much more effective than they let on.

An hour before dusk, we stopped to set up camp. I set a small fire with the help of Volatile and we roasted canned weenies. The damn charmander ate more than his fair share. I gave Soren some berries I had collected on our walk and a small handful of trail mix.

Once nightfall settled, I extinguished the fire. I didn't want any random visitors or spontaneous explosions.

I pulled out my pokedex to check the ranger network. Unfortunately, being in the center of the forest, combined with the thick canopy above meant that it had no connection to towers.

Volatile curled up on the other side of the smoldering ashy fire. Sora bedded down on a low hanging branch above me. I slid down into my sleeping bag and zipped it up.

I looked around the little camp with my sleeping pokemon and smiled to myself. Moments like this little one was why I was glad I became a trainer.

Just us against the world.

I fell asleep easily that night.

We packed up camp at sunrise the next morning and continued our trek north.

The day was pretty identical to the one before it. Lots of walking and lots of training.

The only difference was that I caught a metapod.

...On accident.

Things were going great, we were making great time. We had just taken a lunch break. Thankfully, so that Sora was full of berries and bird seed.

The metapod was resting at the bottom of a large tree, minding its own business. The poor bug was just basking in the green filtered sunlight.

It was about two feet in length. It widened in the center and tapered out on both sides to form a crescent shape. The bug pokémon was covered in mottled green scales that allowed it to camouflage into its surroundings. It just wasn't good enough to ward off my pokeball. It had two small geometric growths off of the outside curve. On the inside curve, between two yellow eyes was a segmented growth that looked like a nose.

My asshole of a charmander decided that our lunch break wasn't long enough for his liking, so he tripped me with long tail.

I went sprawling on the ground. My backpack flapped open and all of my supplies scattered across the ground, including my pokeballs.

One of which rolled forward and tapped the metapod. In a flash of light it got sucked in, and rocked a few times before it pinged.

I honestly thought the only pokémon you could catch like that were magikarp.

Metapod were a second stage pokemon. The evolved form of caterpie, which was a small green wriggly caterpillar pokemon. They were a chrysalis that the worm pokemon formed into to undergo significant changes to evolve into a butterfree. It does this by going into hibernation when it forms its shell and uses its stored energy to change its body.

For some reason, they were also ranked as a one on the Sugimori Scale. I have absolutely no idea why.

Pokemon go into stasis when put into a pokeball. Which means most, but not all, injuries are frozen. This also means that most pokemon do not gain experience, or undergo any growth while in their pokeballs.

On account of this, and thanks to Volatile's tail, now I got to lug a twenty pound metapod around nestled across my shoulders and backpack. Which got old, really fast.

It was also fun finding out around early afternoon that Sora has a sweet tooth for metapod. I got a few gashes on my forearms fending her off.

The sun was beginning to set when we ran into our next hurdle. A wall of white silky webbing stretched across my perfectly planned path.

If it was Azalea forest, or any other forest for that matter I wouldn't have been worried. Bug pokémon were the most common type of pokémon in forests. I felt confident against all but a few bug pokémon. I had a fire pokémon and a bird pokémon, both had a type advantage against bugs. Which would have been great, if we weren't in Viridian.

Viridian Forest was filled with poisonous pokemon.

In my mind's eye, I can see Professor Oak threatening to stab me with a poisonous knife for using that term. Countless times over the years, he would go off on researchers that used the misnomer. He rued the day that centuries ago when the pokemon types were nailed down that it became poison type when they were actually venomous.

It still didn't mean I wasn't going to call it by its proper battling terminology.

Viridian Forest wasn't always filled with poisonous types. At one point it was very similar to Azalea. Most of the pokémon in the forest weren't poison types, or if they were it wasn't until the later stages of their evolutions. Bulbasaur was one example, it used to not grow into its poisonous capabilities until the flower sprouted on it's back when it evolved into a venusaur

However during the last war, Johto strategically poisoned the entire forest. Their aim was to cripple communications and logistics between Pewter and Viridian as those two were the biggest obstacle to a full scale invasion after they got over the mountains.

Johto had bred pokemon specifically for biological warfare known as a saboteur class. The were poisonous pokemon, mostly venusaur that were trained to release their entire payload into the air at once. Killing themselves in the process.

Soldiers released them at intervals on a timer before flying off on skarmory. At the end of the timer they exploded into purple smoke unleashing untold amounts of poison.

It was a specially designed poison, but the results were still devastating. Johto didn't want to kill everything in Viridian Forest, just to make it difficult for Kanto. They formulated it so it wouldn't kill the trees and other habitat, but it still killed thousands of pokemon. Pikachu, rattata, pidgey, just about anything that wasn't a grass, bug or poison pokemon ended up dying.

Almost 70 percent of the entire forest was inaccessible even after the war ended. For almost thirty years no human could step foot into it without very specialized equipment.

The only reason it became accessible again was because pokemon are wonders of evolution. Not the misnomer that is prevalent today that is actually metamorphosis, but what it was before pokemon came through the brink. An ancient pre-brink scientist known as Darwin came up with a theory that living creatures adapt and change to better survive over a period of time, known as survival of the fittest. This process typically takes place over millions of years, but pokemon are the epitome of this theory. They can quickly adapt and change themselves to suit their environment, even within a single generation in some cases. Perhaps whatever world they came from was a lot less forgiving than our own. The pokémon that inhabited the forest evolved to be able to survive with the poison by absorbing it, which eventually depleted it to safe levels.

Over the last century, the native populations of the non grass/bug/poison type pokemon have finally began to reach pre-poison bomb level. As the poison was clearing up, those other types of pokemon that survived within the non-poisoned part of the forest began to expand their territories. Pokemon that lived in the foothills and plains surrounding the forest even took advantage of the new real estate and migrated to the forest.

The grimer and it's evolved form muk also were created around this time. Scientists think they formed out of the remains from the venusaurs' original explosion.

I watched in silent horror as a dozen clacking spinarak descended and scuttled across the forest floor in front of us.

The spider pokemon were roughly one to two feet wide. They had green segmented bodies with a mottled darker green pattern on their backs. Their heads were small and round with four beady black eyes, large red mandibles and a white spike-like growth from where it's forehead should be. They had eight long black and yellow striped legs.

"Well, shit," I took a few steps back and Volatile stepped protectively in front of me. Sora landed a few feet next to him.

In the darkness of the trees surrounding the webbing I saw two large clacking red shadows emerge on the edge of where the spinarak we're gathered. They simply sat there...and watched.

"Alright then," I took a deep breath. "Let's do this."

Whether they understood what I said, or there was some unspoken signal from the two lurking shadows I have no idea, but in the next second the spinarak sprang into action.

Two on the ground skittered across the ground, and one in the air launched themselves at Volatile. He quickly shredded two of them with his claws turning them into green goop.

The third one landed on his shoulder and was able to momentarily latch on before my charmander ripped him off, threw it to the ground and stomped on it.

Sora took to the air without my prompting and she cawed loudly, forcing the spinarak to instinctively pause.

"Ember!" I shouted before the spiders could recover.

Volatile's tail flared up and he launched a flurry of orange fireballs. They casted a faint glow in the fading light.

Most of them missed, and three of the hanging spinarak weaved out of the way. One was hit directly in the thorax and was charred to a crisp.

A few on the ground suffered the same fate.

"Tear them apart Sora!" I shouted.

The pidgey veered to the left and circled around before it dove the ground and sliced three in half with her razor sharp claws.

Two more on the ground skittered forward and leapt into the air.

A half dozen more spinarak scuttled out into the clearing and dropped out of the trees.

My charmander stumbled back and swiped through the air, cutting one. The other landed on its upper chest and sunk it's red mandibles into its scales.

A cold hand reached up from the pit of my stomach and gripped my heart. Most pokémon can only take so much poison, and I didn't know how toxic spinarak venom could be.

In the background I watched Sora dive back down and cut through another spinarak.

Volatile snarled and let out a gout of flame and brushed off the blackened spider.

In an instant I got an idea.

The bite mark on his shoulder and chest were both splotchy and purple. I needed to end this before Volatile got too much poison in his system.

"Sora, cut the strings!"

My pidgey cawed again. The spinarak all shuddered almost in unison. He looped around and in one pass severed all of the seven spiders' web lines.

They hit the ground momentarily dazed.

"Immolate!" I called out.

It was the move we had been practicing all afternoon. Most of Volatile's fire attacks only worked as ranged attacks. I wanted something for close combat.

My charmander sprinted toward the cluster of bug pokemon and took a deep breath. Sora, understood what I was trying to do and cawed at the bugs forcing them to freeze. Volatile skidded to a stop just in front of them.

He released a wall of fire that barely stretched a few feet in front of him. His tail flared brighter than I had seen up until that point.

The second the flame faded Volatile stumbled backwards panting. He coughed up a flurry sparks. I was blinded in the now near darkness.

I expected to see a pile of blackened bug pokemon. Which was true, but there was also another two dozen spinarak skittering out from the trees.

The two red shadows scampered out from their watching place. Ariados, these were likely the parents of all the spinarak.

They stood four feet tall. Their body was segmented the same as the previous evolution and was mainly red with black stripes. It had six purple eyes. It mouth had a white mandible and it's forehead had a single growth spike both were approximately a foot long. It had eight purple and yellow legs sprout from either side of the thorax, and two legs like structures sticking out from it's back.

"Time to go," I said. I knew when I was in over my head. Sometimes the best option against wild pokémon is to simply flee.

Sora landed a few feet in front of me and watched me, expectantly.

Two more spinarak leapt off the ground and latched onto Volatile. His chest was heaving. He ripped them off and shredded them.

Volatile shot off another round of fireballs at the growling cluster of bug pokemon.

"Volatile, let's go!" I shouted.

He snarled at me and turned back to the bug pokémon and shot off another gout of flames. I could see him begin to tremble.

The ariados took a few more cautious steps closer.

We needed to go.

I ripped Volatile's ball off my belt and tagged with the laser. He growled at me as he disintegrated.

A white string shot struck me in the shoulder. My heart skipped a beat as I saw the other end of it was attached to one of the ariados. It began to reel me in, the spinarak skittered around my feet.

My heart was in my throat as I stomped on as many as I could. A hiss escaped my mouth as I felt one of their mandibles latch onto my ankle.

Damn charmander was going to get me killed.

Sora was my savior. She took to the air and sliced through the thick web line with her talons.

Sora, the metapod on my shoulder, and I sprinted off in the opposite direction as fast as we could go. I could feel the blood dribbling down my leg. Damn those bugs.

I ran as far and as hard as I could. No care at all in the world for how off track I was getting, I just wanted to get away from those spiders.

The spinarak I wasn't too worried about. They typically hide out in the webs near their home and take care of any pokémon that wander to close.

The ariados though, they are scary. They're one of the few bug pokémon that actually hunt their prey. They could very well decide that getting a three-for-one meal was too good of an opportunity to pass up and try and track me down.

Eventually, my adrenaline wore off. I doubled over and tried to catch my breath and not throw up. I knew I needed to be active on my journey, but that was a bit much.

I returned metapod to his pokeball. I was too tired to go wandering around with him on my neck.

My ankle was throbbing. I pulled the flashlight out of my backpack. It was completely dark now, but I limped on. It was better to deal with the devil I don't know, rather than the spider I do.

Just when I thought my night couldn't get any worse, I literally fell thrugh the forest floor. One moment I was standing in the moonlight and the next I was plunged into complete darkness. Screaming the whole way down

I hit the ground ten feet below and felt something in my bad ankle nap.

**The following is an excerpt from Pokedex Entry #11 Metapod**

**Metapod are the second evolution of the bug pokemon caterpie. They are commonly known as the cocoon or pupa pokemon.**

**Once a caterpie as engorged itself on enough nutrient rich food, it will find a safe and secure place before beginning its evolution. Once found, it will begin to secrete a thick viscous green fluid form its pores, completely encasing its entire body except for its yellow eyeballs. This fluid eventually hardens into an extremely thick protective cocoon.**

**There is also emerging evidence that the green fluid also contains chlorophyllic like cells which suggest that metapod may be able to use a lower form of photosynthesis to acquire energy. Which would be extremely beneficial to the pokemon since their mouths are covered in the process of forming the cocoon.**

**Once its cocoon hardens, it begins to undergo its actual evolutions inside where it's body begins to transform into a butterfree. This process can take anywhere from one to three weeks depending on how nutrient rich the inside of the cocoon is.**

**Be wary when traveling in heavily wooded areas. Many metapod are often found sticking to the underside of large tree branches, however, in the process of their transformation they can become unstuck and fall. Several trainers have actually been killed by being struck in the head by metapod.**

**The following is an excerpt from Pokedex Entry #167 Spinarak**

**Spinarak and its evolution, Ariados are both commonly known as the spider are one of the few bug pokemon outside of the bee families that actually form communities. These take the form of enormous sprawling webs. In the very center of the web is a small dome like structure made completely out of webbing which is where the ariados live and produce eggs. In each web community there is typically one two to four ariados. **

**Spinarak are hatched in clusters of over a hundred eggs. From the instant they hatch they instinctively move to the outside area of the web community where they begin to build their own webs to trap nearby pokemon. Within the first month of hatching, nearly 75 percent of the new spinaraks have died. They are sometimes eaten by nearby bird pokemon, but more than likely they are cannibalized by their fellow hatchlings or by older spinarak that has had their territory encroached on by the newcomers.**

**Not all spinarak join the community, some flee the web and to seek out new territory to start a spider community of their own.**

**Spinarak can only evolve if they are injected with a specific poison unique to ariados. The poison creates a reaction that sends the spinarak's poison sacs into overdrive that allows it to create more toxic poisons and grow larger than its brethren. **

**A/N: I hope to have the next chapter up in one week. Thanks for reading!**

[/B]


	7. Wartime Detours and Lab Discoveries

**A/N: Here's the long awaited next chapter. Sorry it took me so long to get it written and up. I blame a combination of being busy and a lack of motivation. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy. **

Trials of a Trainer

Chapter 7: Wartime Detours and Lab Discoveries

Just when I thought my night couldn't get any worse, I literally fell through the forest floor. One moment I was standing in the moonlight and the next I was plunged into complete darkness. Screaming the whole way down.

I hit the ground ten feet below and felt something in my bad ankle snap.

"Arrraggh!" I screamed as burning white hot pain shot up my leg. "Damn the legendaries," I took a quick sharp breath.

I had a brief moment of clarity in that moment when I realized I couldn't even see my hand five inches from my face. Chills ran down my spine as I realized how exposed I was. The only light I had was the small flashlight I had in my hand when I fell.

I fumbled for the pokeballs at my feet, jostling my ankle and letting off an impressive string of curse words in the process. I managed to grab one and tapped the release and I watched the laser shoot out in the darkness.

No flaming tail appeared. Just a useless metapod.

I grabbed the right ball and released Volatile. His tail flame looked feeble at best. He was swaying on his feet. There were six points where the spinarak got him. Four across both shoulders, one on the neck, and one on the side. All of them were purple, splotchy and leaking fluid. The veins near the splotches were turning purple.

"Shit shit shit!" I muttered as my breath quickened. I was lost, alone, injured and my starter was dying before my eyes.

"It's gonna be okay buddy," I said hysteria creeping into my voice as I gently laid him on the ground next to me. It was a testament to how bad he was doing that he simply followed along instead of fighting or giving me attitude.

"Okay. I can do this," my breaths came in ever quicker pants. "I've taken care of poisoned pokémon before. I've trained for this before. I just never thought it would be with a broken ankle and my dying pokémon in front of me." I let out a shaky laugh.

I upended my pack on the floor. Spare clothes, my pokedex, human and pokémon food, and my medical supplies rolled everywhere. I snatched up one of the antidotes. They were small syringes filled with about 10 mL of a light purple liquid. They contained a general catch-all antivenom designed to combat the most common damage done by all of the species of poison pokemon.

With a shaking hand I stabbed my ankle with it and depressed the plunger. Ice flooded my veins. I would be useless if that poison killed my foot and I really didn't want to have it amputated.

The potency of the pokémon's poison, the elapsed time of the bite, how many injection points, the species, all factored into how much antidote you need. The general rule of thumb is that in an emergency, just use the full plunger. It's better to err on the side of too much rather than too little. A pokémon center can deal with too much antidote easier than too much poison.

The only problem was that I had half as many antidotes as bites.

"This is gonna hurt," I warned Volatile. I stuck the tip of the needle into his puncture wound. He flinched which was a good sign. I plunged it halfway.

Volatile roared and thrashed. I kicked the antidotes away so he wouldn't shatter them and climbed on top of him.

"If you don't get this medicine, you will die." I told him bluntly. He simply stared at me, his breaths coming in quick raggedy pants.

"Second dose," I told him and moved to a different wound. "Try and stay still." I plunged the rest of the syringe. He clenched his mouth shut and clacked his throat. His body tensed up, but he didn't thrash around like before. After I removed the needle he expelled a long stream of smoke from his nose and I gagged at the thick smell of sulphur.

Ten minutes later I finished giving him all of the antidotes. Volatile layed on the ground chest heaving. The worst of it was behind us.

I let him catch his breath while I gathered up the potions off the floor. They were simple small bottles that held a held a foaming spray that accelerated healing. Contrary to what most trainers thought (and used them as) they weren't a miracle maker. Many pokémon still died despite the liberal use of potions. There were some injuries that even a potion couldn't heal.

Luckily my broken ankle was not one of them. Most good trainers frowned upon using potions on themselves. A gash in your arm can be sewed up just as easily as using a potion, better to save it to help save your pokémon. If you find yourself up against an angry aipom they're going to be the ones to save you, not your perfectly healed arm.

Despite that, I needed my ankle to be able to hold my weight. And now that my adrenaline from the fall was wearing off it was really starting to hurt. I could feel the bone grinding and it was beginning to swell up. My foot felt like it was being poked and prodded by pins and needles. I didn't want to think about whether that was from the poison or the break.

The white gel started foaming up as I carefully spayed my puncture wound and around my swollen ankle. Within a few seconds of it foaming up it hardened into a thick ring around my ankle.

Immediately the pain faded from white hot fire to a dull ache.

I leaned back and let the potion go to work on me and the antidotes go to work on Volatile and explored the room we found ourselves in.

I was in a large room. On the wall opposite of where I was sprawled out were a dozen floor to ceiling lockers. Some were shut, some were half open, they looked like they were cleaned out in a hurry. Items were strewn about haphazardly.

On the wall behind me down towards the far side of the room was a large topographical map of Kanto. There was a large hydraulic metal bunker door to my left that was sealed shut. On the last wall to my right was a small office door. Tables with all kinds of papers were strewn about on the far side of the room.

Above me was the hole I managed to fall through. A few beams of moonlight filtered through. The roof was pockmarked with holes that I could see soil falling through. Which I thought was odd this whole place seemed to be built pretty soundly, but for some reason the roof looked like it would cave in at any moment?

Volatile had finally managed to catch his breath. Which I assumed meant that the antidotes were working.

"Time for the next step," I told him and flashed him the remaining potion bottles. He looked at them warily and snarled at me. The antidotes were definitely doing their job. "It won't hurt like those ones did," I promised. "It'll help boost them and heal the marks."

I carefully sprayed each of his bites with the potion and they foamed up and hardened. I had to stop him from breaking them off too soon.

I did the opposite and broke my foam ring around my ankle and slowly got to my feet. The puncture wound had almost completely healed, there were just two little red spots where the mandibles bit me. I tested it with my full weight. It was still tender and stung, but it would do its job. The potions were designed for pokémon so it didn't surprise me that it didn't work as efficiently on me. I'd have someone check it over when we made it to Pewter.

The minutes later I broke Volatile's rings and helped him to his feet. He was marginally better than when I originally released him. He was still swaying on his feet and using his tail to help keep his balance. His flame looked a little bit stronger.

"Let's do some exploring," I muttered and picked up my metapod that I had dutifully ignored until that point and settled him back across my shoulders. "I can't wait until you evolve," I grunted.

I found an electrical panel and flipped the breaker. A generator kicked on somewhere beyond the sealed door and auxiliary lights kicked on overhead. It wasn't much, but I wouldn't have to completely focus on my flashlight.

The hydraulic door was not possible to open it from the inside. There were no buttons, keypads or anything at all to unlock it. The hydraulic lines were either in the walls, ceiling, or floor and not accessible. The metal door was also a couple inches thick, too thick for Volatile to melt it.

This was a military bunker. The lockers were filled with military bdus and boots. The map was tacked with military base locations and troop movements. The papers on the tables detailed pokemon and human casualties, and internal memos between the military and the rangers. There were two doors, one was locked and the other led to an adjacent room with over a dozen bunks.

I had somehow managed to stumble upon what Blue and I had gone looking for so many years ago. And I had found it on accident.

I determined from the dates on the memos that this bunker was from the Great War. The one great grandfather Ketchum fought in.

There was one particular memo that was interesting.

_Gym Leaders,_

_Intelligence has indicated from its Future Sight division that there is a possibility of Johto directly attacking one of your cities.  
As such, high command and the Elite have authorized me to turn over control of a company to use as you see fit.  
Expect them within the week._

_Good luck,  
Colonel Howes_

Now that was an interesting tidbit, they had advanced notice that the Razing was going to happen.

I'm also not surprised that despite the Future Sight division's help the attack still occurred. If the psychics in our intelligence detected it, then the psychics in Johtan intelligence detected that we detected it.

It remains classified to this day exactly how much intel the Future Sight division gave us, and whether or not it was actually beneficial in the war.

The map had roughly thirty military bases spread out across Kanto. Central command for the military was in Vermillion, where it still resides today. According to my map reading skills, this bunker was known as Viridian Prime. There was one other base in the forest known as Viridian Outpost, it was on the outskirts where the trees turned into the foothills of the metal mountains.

There were two other bases below the actual city or Viridian. Pallet town was of course not on the map, it wouldn't be founded for several more decades. Not until the Champion Samuel Oak would eventually become the world renowned Professor Oak. To the south of where the town would once be there was a small coastal military base.

I smirked as I tapped the other base with my finger.

It was to the west of where Pallet would be, also within the foothills of the mountains. We were right. Sort of.

The last unexplored area of the bunker was a small annexed office. The door was locked, but a running start popped it open easily.

The office was roughly a quarter the size of the other room. File cabinets were along one wall. A large brown desk with a high backed office chair behind it. Two smaller office chairs were in front.

On the actual desk was an ancient blocky computer monitor that had faded to a moldy yellow color. Beside the desk was the tower for the computer, it was as tall as the desk and about two feet wide. Papers were strewn about on the side not covered by computer peripherals. A desk name plate sat in front of all of the mess. It read Capt. Lewis.

Volatile followed me inside and stood there for a few moments before slumping against the wall and sliding down to sit. He was still breathing a bit harder then normal.

"If only these walls could talk," I muttered. "The stories you could tell."

I sat down in the chair behind the desk and spun around a few times. The rest of the office was spartan. No pictures, or anything on the wall

I searched through the desk while I was waiting for the computer to boot up. It was the same reports that were all over the tables in the other room, except these were a bit more detailed.

One was an interesting memo sent to Pewter requesting a member of the Tektite or Ainu clan with an onyx to check the structural integrity of the base. They had been plagued by small earthquakes for months from the native ground pokémon from the nearby diglett cave pass.

In the bottom of a desk drawer I found an ancient pokeball. It looked very similar to the ball that Lance kept Ares in. It was about twice the size of a regular pokeball. It was a deep red orange color, not quite as faded as Ares', but still lighter than a normal ball.

A military trained pokemon. A battling pokémon trained to peak endurance, and trained to take orders with no hesitation in the heat of the moment. They would be a great addition to my team.

I held my breath and tapped the release button and…

Absolutely nothing happened.

"Dammit," I muttered. "I suppose that would just be too easy."

Volatile ignored me.

I dropped the ancient pokeball in my pack. There's a museum in Pewter. I bet they would buy it off of me for a decent chunk of change.

The computer beeped next to me.

The good news was that after ten minutes the ancient monstrosity had finally booted up completely. The bad news was that, after figuring out how to navigate from the keyboard as there was no mouse, 80 percent of the files were corrupted beyond repair.

I guess that's what happens when a computer survives for over a century. Frankly, I'm more surprised the damn thing actually turned on.

I did find one interesting file: a Report on _The Green Siege._

_The Green Siege took place toward the end of the war._

_Advanced scouts for the Viridian Forest outpost detected two Johtan regiments within the mountains late one night. They reported it to the outpost who sent it up to Viridian Prime._

_Prime inquired about electrode-bombing the regiments which the outpost shot down as the Johtans were too heavily entrenched in the caves._

_In the early hours the following morning, three Johtan soldiers shadow-ported into the forest surrounding the outpost with the help of a murkrow and an umbreon. They then released fifteen angry ursaring which began rampaging._

_The outpost responded by sending their canine unit, a squad of eight arcanine._

_Simultaneously, the Johtan regiments exited the caves and began to make their way down to the forest atop ponyta and rhyhorn. As they rode through the hills they released a steel of two dozen skarmory into the air, and another two dozen native johtan pokemon onto the ground. Typhlosion, feraligatr, meganium, scizor, and several other species._

_The advance scouts reported the development and the outpost immediately went on high alert. All the soldiers were roused and created a defense line outside of the base. They let out their stocks of pokemon, blastoise, venusaur, charizard, nidoqueen and nidoking, and dozens of others. They released their Zeus Unit to deal with the incoming skarmory. A collection of electric type pokemon raichu, electabuzz, and jolteon. Finally, the outpost radioed Prime requesting air support to electrode-bomb the incoming Johtans. Prime responded with an ETA of fifteen minutes._

_Eight and a half minutes later, the two forces collided and hell came to Indigo. It was a bloodbath. The two forces tore into each other, neither one able to gain the upper hand. One Kanto soldier directed his hive of beedrill to kamikaze themselves on enemy officers. A group of Johtan soldiers snuffed out a charizard's tail with a precision attack with multiple water pokemon._

_Bird screeches and caws filled the air as a few dozen pidgeot piloted by soldiers flew into view above the battle. The remaining skarmory not taken out by the Zeus Unit immediately attacked the air support. Each one had an electrode strapped to its talons. Some were forced to drop their payloads early, others once in range, the pilots pulled a rope and released the electric ball pokémon._

_The electrode bounced when they hit the ground, and once they were in range of the johtans without endangering Kanto military, they exploded._

_The results were devastating. The electrode ripped through the the Johtan forces which finally allowed the Kanto military to begin gain ground._

_Until the lead Johtan officer threw down an experimental ultra pokeball. A twelve foot tall, green armor plated tyranitar materialized out of it._

_The Outpost alerted Prime who radioed back a minute and a half later that there was a dragonite en route from Vermillion with an eta if twenty minutes. The outpost responded that they would be dead by then._

_The remaining battle for the Viridian outpost lasted a grand total of twelve minutes after the tyranitar was released. It ripped through the remaining defense with ease. The Kanto military's last remaining action for the Viridian outpost was to release and arm over a dozen electrode which blew the building sky high as the Johtan military approached._

_In response to losing the outpost, Viridian Prime went dark for a month before they were forced to lock down and abandon the base following Johto poisoning most of the forest. _

I was astounded. A first hand account of the Green Siege. We learned about it in school. It was named the Green Siege, not because it took place in the Viridian Forest, but because of the tyranitar that fought in it. A pokémon that was considered a pseudo-legendary, one of the only pokémon that could go toe-to-toe with a dragonite or even a snorlax and come out with a decent chance of winning.

Kanto lost a lot more than a single small outpost that day. Historians said that losing it, resulted in a cascading effect against Kanto. Losing that single outpost allowed for Johto to gain enough of a foothold in the forest to allow them to eventually poison almost all of it and make it inaccessible. Which in turn cut off an important access point between Pewter and Viridian, and a hole in the Kantonian defenses that Johto exploited by sending dragonite through and razing Viridian to the ground. Of course all of that destruction eventually led to a truce being declared by the two in fear that they would burn, poison, and raze Indigo to the ground.

Kanto was completely blindsided in that encounter. History tells us that during this point of the war that most of the Kanto military was split between defending Vermillion and Celadon and leading the offense in Olivine city.

Pokémon were the war's great equalizer. Allowing for a small squad of soldiers to have dozens of different species of pokemon meant that the fighting could be spread very wide, but still be very concentrated. Which left holes to be exploited. No one expected Johto to come through the treacherous and dangerous Metal Mountains.

The area of the forest that the Outpost resided in was also forever changed that day. Not just because of the massive amount of destruction, or that it was eventually poisoned as a result, but because that much carnage and the close proximity to that caliber of a dark pokémon, ghost pokémon were born. Ghastly and haunter to be specific. One of which evolved into a gengar during the ensuing battle. The new ghost pokémon thrived in the coming months after Viridian was poisoned.

I tinkered around on the computer for another twenty minutes and after digging around deep into the system I was able to access the hydraulic door and trigger the release. A loud boom echoed through the small bunker and the walls shook.

Volatile was passed out against the wall. I roused him, he was slowly getting better. We walked through and exited the bunker.

I listened for any alarms that were triggered by the door opening, but didn't hear any so we continued on.

We walked through several hallways and abandoned rooms filled with century old army supplies. We eventually came upon a large office room that had a large glass window running along one wall.

We were not the first inhabitants of the Prime Base. Someone had beat us to it. The office had several modern computers that couldn't have been more than a few months old. And they didn't look like the kind you could just go buy at the Celadon Department store. Documents were strewn about across the various tables.

The question was who was here, and the even better question was where the hell were they at? There was no one around at all.

On the other side of the giant glass window was a state-of-the-art laboratory. I could see a few of the huge machines, which were eerily silent.

I skimmed through the documents. They were different scientific papers on a bunch of different subjects.

One was on whether or not the radiation of evolution stones had an impact on pokémon evolution on species that normally evolved without them.

Another was on the possibility of the ancient kabutops being an ancestor of the modern scyther.

The one I found the most interesting though was an experimental procedure that took place on a bulbasaur in Sinnoh. The bulbasaur was severely injured during a battle and its bulb was removed, which contained it's photopod. Without its photopod it would not be able to regulate its grass type anatomy. The doctors replaced it with a small part of a turtwig's photopod since that was the closest species that they had way access to. A bulbasaur would have been perfect but none were in the vicinity. The bulbasaur's body successfully accepted the photopod and it eventually regrew its bulb.

The scientists expected it's photopod to eventually grow into a tree like a torterra, but it didn't. It grew into a flower like a normal venusaur. The only difference was this one could not regulate or use any of the poisons that its species was well known for. It was essentially a pure grass type venusaur thanks to the transplant.

My first thought was that this must have been some kind of rogue scientist's secret laboratory. I tried to login to the different computers, but they were all too locked down.

Volatile was sniffing around the room. He was very interested in whatever lay in the actual lab part of the laboratory.

We walked through and it was much much bigger then it looked through the window. The machines blocked most of its view from the computer room. Equipment and machines that did who knows what covered just about any spare space that was in here. I could also see in the distance two sectioned off operating rooms. One of which was fitted for robotic surgery.

I felt a bit uneasy as we walked through the maze. The overhead lights caused the machines to cast looming shadows and I kept getting brief smells of something sweet and flowery.

This was no rogue scientist lab. No scientist could afford this many cutting-edge machines. Most looked like they were something that wouldn't be out of place in Oak's lab, and out of those the only one I could actually name was a gene sequencer.

Well, I take that back. There is one scientist that would be able to afford all this, not Professor Oak, but one of his most esteemed colleagues. Bill [Last Name] revolutionized the world when he developed the pokemon storage system. He built an entire bleeding-edge pokemon laboratory off Cerulean Cape.

Which means this is definitely not his lab, which left only one possibility. A.C.E. Who I already pissed off once. No one else would be able to afford this kind of a lab without government help, except for maybe Silph or Devon.

My breath hitched as I realized the ramifications of them finding me in their top secret lab. Which were that no one would likely find me ever again.

"Volatile," I called out. He had wandered somewhere out of sight amongst all the machinery. "We've got a bit of a problem."

I whipped out my pokedex. Thankfully, I had a bit of signal. One single bar, which was enough for what I was going to do.

_Oak,  
I might have encountered a bit of a problem in Viridian Forest. I fell into an old military base from the Great War which I originally thought was abandoned. Now, I believe it has been retrofitted into some kind of top secret lab that I'm 90 percent sure belongs to A.C.E. I haven't seen anyone yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. You may check with your government contacts, there's some expensive and shady looking equipment here. If you don't hear from me within 24 hours assume I'm in their custody.  
-Red _

"Volatile!" I risked shouting a little louder. "We need to get out of here!"

Metapod and I soon came across the main area of the lab. I was immediately hit with a wave of a sweet smell, it was almost overpowering in the small space. In front was a row of five cylindrical tanks that were taller than me. They were empty except for a weird green liquid. One of the five had been shattered and there was a mixture of the green liquid and glass covering the ground. Across from the tanks was a large computer station that had the screen smashed in and slash marks across the hard drive.

Volatile was standing on the far side of the room next to a closed door. He was pacing back and forth and his tail looked a bit subdued. It was the most anxious I'd seen him since we'd met.

I rounded the computer terminal. I found out why I hadn't ran into anyone throughout the entire lab, or the rest of the military base for that matter. It was because they were all dead.

Six bodies were strewn about across the floor. It looked like a grisly murder scene. They were all sliced and cut up in the exact same manner that was described on the ranger networking app. Giant pools of long dried rust colored blood covered the tile floors.

There was no stench of death though. I should have been gagging and trying not to puke from the rotting bodies. I wasn't though, because it smelled sweet.

Growing out of every single wound on the bodies was a bouquet of bright pink flowers.

Looking around at all the machines and the surgery center, it made me wonder what exactly they were doing to this fairy to turn it into something so violent and demented.

Which also meant that there was a good chance that it was nearby.

I shivered involuntarily.

I carefully made my way around the bodies, and as I did something on one of their lab coats caught my eye. I almost didn't notice it because the whole thing was practically covered in blood. On the breast pocket was a ruby colored R.

I filed the thought away for future reference, but would not make connection for several weeks.

Volatile, metapod, and I slipped through the door and made our way through the rest of the military complex.

My heart was hammering in my chest. Every corner we went around, every new room we entered, I expected to find the fairy waiting there to kill us.

Fifteen minutes later we came to a stairway that led up to a doorway that was hidden by a dense cluster of trees.

We had made it out of that damned laboratory alive. The sun was setting and we were all starving, but I wanted to put as much distance as I could between us and the lab before we stopped to eat.

Volatile was doing better. He was sure-footed with every step and only stumbled every once in a while, and his tail flame looked strong. I think by how his body had burned out whatever remnants of the poison remained that the antidotes didn't neutralize.

We had less than an hour's worth of sunlight when I first saw it. To be honest, that was probably the only reason I caught a glimpse of it in the first place. Some of the orange sunset filtered through the trees and reflected off of something silvery and metallic further out in the forest.

I thought nothing of it. Until I saw it again ten minutes later, and a third time five minutes after that. Something was tracking us, or worse hunting us.

I ran through my head of any fairies that had something metallic about their person, and coming up short I breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't the experiment.

One second there was nothing but open trails in front of us, and the next second it was standing there blocking our path.

A scyther. It stood nearly six feet tall and its body was split up into three segments, its head, thorax and abdomen. Covering its segments was a green armor-like carapace with cream colored splotches coloring the gaps. It was a dark green, darker than any scyther I'd seen before.

That should have been my first clue.

Its head was reptilian and formed into three points off the back of its head. It had yellow eyes with no pupils.

Strangely enough it had no wings, which was odd considering it was a bug and flying type.

It had two massive curved scythes on either arm at least three feet in length and six inches in width. They dominated its image.

The scyther opened its mouth and hissed. It clanged its scythes together and blinked at me.

"I really hate Viridian…" I muttered as I took two steps back.

Scyther were one of the only truly dangerous bug pokemon there were. Most you could take care of pretty simply as long as you avoided getting poisoned in the process. Not only did they literally have a pair of razor sharp cutting appendages, but their bodies had also evolved in such a way that they were streamlined for speed.

Before Volatile could even move to a better defensive position, the scyther blinked again and shook itself.

From behind it's back, six green tendril vines crept around. One above each shoulder, and two below each arm. Each one completely in sync with one another.

My jaw went slack and for the first time I could remember, the gears in my head ground to a halt.

This… this was impossible. There was no scyther in recorded history that was also part grass type. None. This kind of cross-typing was only common in two regions, and the chances of one showing up in Kanto were nil, discounting the fact that scyther was not one of the known species to even exhibit that behavior.

A second later everything I had seen in the last 24 hours came together like a kaleidoscope aligning perfectly.

The bouquets of flowers growing on all of the mutilated bodies, all of the very specific research papers, the fact that the lab was remote and abandoned.

The rangers would never find that fairy that they were looking for, because it wasn't a fairy that was murdering all of those trainers.

The pokemon that the lab was experimenting on, and that was responsible for all of the deaths…

...was the scyther standing right in front of me.

**A/N: What did you guys think? I hope you liked it. There's a few little easter eggs in this chapter that reference one of the works that inspired the story, and its not ****_Game of Champions_**** this time. **

**I'm not going to give an estimation for when the next chapter is going to be coming out, because due to my previous track record I probably won't make it. **


	8. Fight or Flight

**A/N: Here's Chapter 8. It's a little bit on the small side, but it felt like a nice stopping point and I wanted to be able to get this up. **

**I meant for this to be up much sooner, but my work didn't shut down for the Coronavirus like I expected them to (we are absolutely not essential) which has involved working 60+ hour weeks since everything got crazy. I also had some family stuff. **

**Anyway here's the next chapter where we find out how Red deals with the Scyther. **

* * *

Trials of a Trainer

Chapter 8:

Fight or Flight

The pokemon that the lab was experimenting on, and that was responsible for all of the deaths…

...was the scyther standing right in front of me.

I stumbled a few feet back as Volatile cut in front of me. I barely held on to metapod as I fell on my ass.

Volatile spat a gout of flame at the insect pokemon which took a half step back.

We were screwed, even with charmander's type advantage I still didn't favor our chances very much. There was only one thing I could think of that might get us out of this bind.

I dug around in the side pocket of my bag and my hands closed around a minimized pokeball. I tapped it to full size and primed it as I pulled it out.

A few agonizing seconds later it pinged that it was ready and I hurled it at the experiment.

The ball glanced off one of its scythes and snapped open.

"Volatile! Run!" I shouted.

The sound of a static crash filled the air, but I was already sprinting away before the scyther had barely begun to be sucked into the pokeball.

I glanced over my shoulder and was relieved to see that Volatile had finally listened to my instructions. He was running on all fours right on my heels.

"Thank you Walter," I panted. The old man might have been crazy, but he might have just saved my life.

Every trainer knows there's always a chance they'll run into a wild pokemon that's above their level. And many will die trying to battle it because they're too stubborn to realize it. You need to be smart enough to know when to flee.

I heard a second static crash somewhere behind me as the pokeball failed. I had already known that there was no chance it would actually catch the insect.

I snapped Sora's pokeball off my belt and released her. She materialized with a screech into the air and kept pace with us easily.

I held metapod tighter and pumped my legs harder as we crashed through the trees. Branches and thorns whipped my face and arms stinging me and drawing blood, but I didn't care. The scyther would spill a lot more blood than that if it caught up with us.

Volatile growled next to me and out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of silver and then it was gone.

The scyther appeared in the trees ahead of us. I skid to a stop, tripped over a root and went sprawling across the ground. Something hard prodded my hip, the steelix knife. Metapod flew out of my hands and skittered across the forest floor.

I scrambled back, unsheathing the knife from my hip as the scyther took a menacing step forward.

I watched as several vines creeped out from behind its back.

A caw filled the air as Sora flew into view. The scyther halfway flinched. It didn't work half as well as it did against the spinarak horde.

"Slash!" I called out. Using the pidgey as cover, I climbed to my feet and waved Volatile in front of me.

Sora cawed and turned around in a tight loop. She flew past talons bared and cuffed the insect pokemon across the shoulder.

Scyther hissed and swiped at Sora, but the pidgey narrowly dove out of the way.

"Ember!" I called to Volatile. "Keep your distance."

The charmander snorted a cloud of smoke as if to say obviously before opening his mouth and clacking his throat.

He launched three orange fireballs in close proximity to one another at the bug pokemon.

The scyther slipped right through them, withdrawing its vines in the process, not even getting slightly charred. It took two quick strides and bodychecked Volatile out of the way back-slicing his shoulder as it sidestepped right in front of me.

I threw my arms up to try and protect my face as I stumbled backwards.

Caw! Sora screeched as she swooped back down.

She bared her talons and tore into the scyther's back. The bug pokemon arced it's back and let out its loudest hiss yet.

If my pidgey had been a few seconds too late, the insect would have cleaved my chest in two. Instead, I got a six inch cut across both my forearms.

I gasped sharply and narrowly avoided dropping my knife. Fire shot though my arms and I could already feel the blood dripping off my elbows.

The scyther did a 180 and slashed at Sora, but she was already pulling into a turn ten feet away.

In place of where a normal scyther's wings would be, this one had a large bulb about the size of my head that was the same color as its carapace.

The bulb had six claw marks cutting through in a downward angle. All of them were oozing a vibrant green liquid.

Seconds later, two prehensile green vines slid out from the underside of the bulb. The damn bug practically had eyes in the back of its head. The vines wove their way through the air.

I clenched my teeth and grabbed them both with my left hand. Pain shot through my forearm as those muscles contracted opening the cut on that arm open more.

The vines fought back. They whipped back and forth in a frenzy trying to make me lose my grip.

As the tips of my fingers were beginning to go numb, I managed to brace them against my elbow while holding my arm out as far from my body as I could.

I swung my right arm down and sliced through the vines with the steelix knife.

The scyther hissed and went to turn around as Sora dove down to harass it again.

I dropped the severed vines from my left hand and they wiggled on the ground. In the blink of an eye the other vines disappeared under the bug pokemon's bulb.

I stabbed the bulb with the knife and sunk it all the way down to the hilt.

The scyther arced it's back and hissed even louder this time as I dragged the knife down. Green liquid ran down my wrist from the bulb. It burned as it mixed with my bleeding forearms.

In one movement it turned and hit me straight in the gut with the blunt side of its scythes. I hit the ground a few feet away, gasping for breath with the wind knocked out of me.

Something green caught my eye next to me. It was metapod, and it was rocking back and forth watching the ensuing battle. Its yellow eyes were almost glowing and its green carapace had several cracks in it and was oozing a green liquid, a different lighter color than that which belonged to the scyther. That fact alone was questionable since their shells are as strong as steel.

The bug stood there for a moment catching its breath as the green liquid trickled down from its bulb and ran down the length of its scythes.

Volatile growled and spat a gout of flame at the scyther.

The bug sidestepped out of the way again, but this time it was a fraction slower and its lower legs and waist were singed black.

Sora screeched from above as she tucked in her wings and prepared to dive-bomb the bug.

"STOP!" I shouted as I tracked her trajectory.

I watched in slow-motion as she arced down, but I was too late. Sora's talons were bared as she came in from the right.

The previous two times Sora attacked the bug, she did it by dropping in on its blindside. This time, she dropped in right in front.

I watched helplessly as the scyther swiped up with its left scythe. It was so fast that I don't think Sora even saw it coming. One second she was diving, and the next second she had the scythe stuck halfway into her side. She didn't even make a sound.

"Noooo!" I shouted. My heart stopped.

Volatile growled and snorted out a long stream of smoke. Without my prompting he dropped to all fours and sprinted off.

The green insect shook its scythe out, but the bird pokémon was stuck fast. It took the outside dull edge of its other scythe and bumped the bird off. The left scythe was covered in blood.

The bulb on it's back flexed with every breath it took. I could hear raspy gasps from where I stood.

Volatile snarled and crashed into the side of the bug pokemon, knocking it onto its side. He clicked his throat and sprayed a jet of flame charring its shoulder carapace.

The scyther threw Volatile off it, cutting a gash all the way across his stomach. I watched as hot red blood started beading up and dribbling down.

My charmander growled and took a few half steps to stand between the bug pokemon and me.

My metapod was rapidly rocking back and forth.

CRACK!

Neither Volatile or the scyther flinched or broke eye contact at the unexpected noise.

A split appeared in the metapod's shell. It ran the length of its crescent shaped body. Even more green liquid leaked out of it.

Volatile spat out more flames at the scyther to force it to keep its distance.

A tiny turquoise paw poked through the top of the shell, quickly followed by another.

A butterfree that was almost three feet in length with a purple segmented body and giant white wings with black colored veins pulled itself out of the cocoon. It had four turquoise colored paws, a pair of red compound eyes the size of baseballs and a pair of black antennae over a foot long. It had a turquoise snout and a pair of miniature fangs poked out from under its upper lip.

It sat atop the metapod shell, completely coated in the green liquid. It gently flapped its wings to dry them.

The scyther darted a few feet to the right. It was still breathing heavily, which must have been the only reason it hadn't completely eviscerated my starter. Volatile tracked it and let out another jet of orange flames.

_Why the hell wouldn't this bug just flee?_

It hissed as four vines creeped out from behind it's back. Dozens of small cuts crisscrossed the length of them, all of which were bleeding a bright green liquid.

Volatile dropped down to all fours and snarled, smoke billowed out of his maw.

Before either pokemon could move, the butterfree chirped and gently took to the air.

The League considers butterfree a bug/flying type, although it is actually much more diverse. Within the back of its middle segment near the wings is a single poison sac, which disperses the few forms of chemical compounds it can create to their wings, which can be released as it flies. They also are thought to have latent psychic abilities as groups of butterfree often move and act in complete synchronization.

"Stun spore!" I said after a moment's hesitation.

The stun spore was a gamble for two reasons. The first was that since it was a bug pokemon, especially one with a carapace it would be hard for the paralytic to get under it to affect the scyther's nerves. The second was that I was hoping it didn't have some kind of inherent immunity due to its additional grass typing.

My new butterfree flapped around in the air above the scyther, and released a fine yellow powder into the air directly onto the other bug pokemon.

The scyther completely ignored my charmander, in favor of swiping at the air above it.

"Get out of there!" I shouted and waved my arms. I hissed as they throbbed painfully. My arms were both entirely covered in blood at this point.

The butterfree floated ever higher and still dropping spores, as I watched the scyther crouch.

"When it lands, blast it," I called to Volatile.

The scyther leapt six feet into the air, and there were a half dozen glints as it swiped above.

If even one of those connected with my butterfree that would be the end of it

But it hit nothing but air.

The butterfree was almost to the lower canopy of the forest, and was still dropping paralytic powder.

The scyther's feet hit the ground and a moment later a jet of orange flames hit it, charring its already injured shoulder.

The bug let out a throated hiss and took one step forward, and another. On the third step its knee locked up and it stumbled forward.

For the first time during the entire battle I let myself feel a glimmer of hope. I might make it out of this with all of my limbs attached.

The knee released and the scyther took a few steps forward before swiping through the air at Volatile and its shoulder locked up, causing the slash to err too low.

"Tackle," I commanded. Volatile dropped to all fours and took off, impacting the bug in its side again and knocking it completely off its feet.

I watched as the scyther rolled on the ground to its side and froze. Its legs started twitching, its scythes started flailing and flashing metal everywhere. It looked like it was having a seizure.

Everytime it managed to get its feet under it, it would have a spasm and fall.

I still held my steelix knife as tight as I could, ready in case it managed to coordinate its body well enough to attack me.

The entire time it struggled it buzzed like mad and glared at me with unblinking, pupil-less yellow eyes.

Its entire left side that hit the ground was covered in yellow spores that had accumulated around it.

Stun spore, was part of a collection of attacks that the League considered status conditions. They were attacks and abilities that caused ongoing impairment during a battle. The spores were of the paralytic family, and each attack within the family generally had a different reaction.

Stun spore itself affects the nervous system by causing miscommunication in the nerves that involve motor control. This causes the limbs to vary back and forth between spontaneous movement and locking up.

I had a decision to make.

I could kill this murdering abomination right now. There were any number of ways. I could stab it with my knife between its menacing yellow eyes. I could stab its bulb a few more times, surely I'd hit something vital. I could have Volatile torch its head until it was a burning hust. Or I could just leave it here to struggle. I think I punctured its lung when I stabbed its bulb judging by its labored breathing. It would likely suffocate before the spores wore off.

I stood there, for I'm not sure how long with my heart thumping, adrenaline in my veins, and my arms bleeding into a puddle on the ground with indecision.

I'd seen pokemon be killed before, I'd killed dozens of bug pokemon and other small ones since I'd left home already. But this was different.

My starter and I were both bleeding from cuts this insect had given us, and they weren't shallow. It had killed the first wild pokemon I had caught. I had every right to strike it down just for what it had wrought against me.

It had taken three of my pokemon working together to bring it to this point. It was a powerful and extremely dangerous pokemon.

Which is why just killing it seemed like a complete waste.

Especially since it was such a unique scyther.

I pulled out a pokeball and primed it, before lightly tossing it at the scyther.

A static crash filled the forest as the bug was sucked in, and the sound of its raspy gasps was replaced with silence.

It rocked back and forth for almost a full minute before it pinged that it was successfully captured.

At that sound, the knife fell from my numb fingers embedding the blade into the earth. I collapsed falling to my knees as the relief and exhaustion from the battle hit me all at once.

"I did it," I muttered as I watched Volatile drop out of his fighting stance. My butterfree gently floated back down from the canopy before alighting atop its metapod shell. "I won."

I vomited whatever meager food was left in my stomach, as the realization of what just happened went through my head. I almost died. Sora did.

I stomached a glance over to where the scyther threw her off its scythes. She lay crumpled on the ground, with sightless eyes.

We survived by the skin of our teeth. If metapod hadn't evolved, I doubt I'd still be breathing despite the damage we'd done to the bug.

I grimaced and hissed as my adrenaline began to wear off and the full pain of my cuts across my forearms made itself known. They hadn't even begun to clot.

I dug into my first aid kit, and with tears streaming down my face and a jaw clenched so hard I was afraid I'd crack a tooth, I poured isopropyl alcohol the cuts. It still didn't prevent me from crying out in the silent forest.

With the cuts disinfected, I did my best to bandage them up as tightly as I could with their awkward positioning.

I never noticed the miniscule vines and leaves that were inside the cuts.

I returned Volatile, he looked like he was about to pass out from blood loss. Thank the legendaries even baby dragons are hardier than most pokemon. I think he hates Viridian Forest almost as much as I do at this point.

I returned butterfree, it hadn't been injured in the course of the fight at all thankfully.

I picked up the scyther's pokeball and clipped it to my belt on the opposite side from Volatile and the butterfree, I didn't want to release it by accident.

Lastly, I returned Sora's body to her pokeball. I'd give her a proper burial later. She sacrificed her life for me, and deserved much more than just this godforsaken forest.

Finished, I began my slow trek north. My arms throbbed with every step.

Every time I saw a pidgey flying through the trees I felt a pang in my heart and that pokeball on my waist felt a little bit heavier.

_Where did everything go wrong? What could I have done differently? _

I thought back over the battle, going over every angle and trying to figure out how I could have been better.

The only conclusion I could come up with is if I had moved a bit faster, or commanded Sora better. Or if i had my pokémon work together in better conjunction.

A hard lesson to learn. To be a better trainer, going forward.

I was so deep in thought, that I hadn't noticed my footfalls became heavier and my breathing more labored.

I dropped to my knees trying to catch my breath and saw a large shiny brown carapace.

_What the hell was wrong with me? _

I knew I had lost a lot of blood, but not that much.

_Was I going to die in this damned forest? _

I looked at my bandages on my left hand and saw a small thin green vine poking out of it. It had managed to weave it's way out through the bandages and begun to wrap itself around my wrist.

Both my forearms where I had been cut were swollen and bulging, and the vine was just barely sticking out of my right arm.

"Leech seed," I muttered as my vision began to darken.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the shiny brown carapace again, and a pair of dark grey, spiny horns. A pinsir.

"I hate this effing forest," I muttered and reached for Volatile's pokeball, but before I could trigger the release, blackness overtook me.

* * *

**The following is an excerpt from Pokedex Entry #123 Scyther **

**Scyther are generally recognized by their light green colored furry exoskeleton. They are instantly recognized by their long bladed forearms and its two pairs of wings. They predominantly live in heavily forested areas, although there have been some sightings in grasslands. **

**Contrary to popular belief scyther are not actually carnivores, but omnivores. The bug pokemon primarily eat the leaves of various trees and the bugs that inhabit it. The pokemon generally live near forests with trees that contain thick sugary sap. The scyther will often run at high speeds throughout its territory using its blades to cut large deep cuts in the trees allowing the sweet sap inside to leak sap in the trees often attracts other small bugs, often including caterpie, wurmple, ladyba and other small big pokemon allowing the scyther to feast on them. The process of slicing the trees often knocks down large amounts of leaves which scyther have also been known to eat.**

**The popular belief that Scyther are carnivores stems from the fact that the bug pokemon is extremely territorial which usually results in lethal retaliation. **

**Scyther have often been considered to be one of the fastest land pokemon. This is because their bodies have evolved to be extremely aeronautical allowing them to have as little drag as possible...adaptations allow the pokemon to move at extremely high speeds, often disappearing to the human eye into a blur of bright green. To compensate for the lack of balance while moving at extreme speeds, the pokemon evolved two pairs of wings. **

**Scyther are also thought to be the modern darwinism evolution of the ancient pokemon kabutops. It is speculated that kabutops was originally a bug type of pokemon, but its believed its typing changed due to it being fossilized as all revived fossils have a rock typing. The fossils have also been found in areas that were once forests. There is still speculation behind the reasoning for its water typing. Scientists think it also lived by large bodies of water.**

* * *

**The following is an excerpt from Pokedex Entry #12 Butterfree**

**Butterfree are the third and final evolution of the caterpie line. They are characterized by their purple segmented bodies, and their large white and black wings. They also have turquoise paws and snout along with two small fangs that they use to latch onto large flowers. **

**They are one of the more versatile bug species despite being only a bug/flying type. In their middle segment they have a poison sac that can mix a few different chemical compounds. From there they have veins that can disperse those compounds through their wings which give them the black veins throughout. The compounds react when they come into contact with the air that gives them a powdery like consistency. **

**They have known to create compounds that are poisonous, paralytic, and sleep inducing among other side effects. **

**Butterfree are relatively harmless when by themselves, however they are extremely dangerous in hordes. This is because they have latent psychic abilities. **

**An individual butterfree may induce confusion in pokemon or humans when agitated that can take the form of hallucinations. **

**A horde of butterfree have a strong enough psychic ability to use telekinesis which can cause massive amounts of damage. They have been known to topple century old trees if the horde was large enough. The primary cause to be wary however is that hordes of butterfree can cause brain bleed in humans and pokemon. If the horde is big enough they do this passively. **

**Butterfree were first thought to have psychic abilities when they have been witnessed moving through forests completely in sync with one another. **

**Butterfree eat pollen and drink nectar of flowers. They have also been known to create commensalistic partnerships with different types of grass pokemon that produce flowers.**

* * *

**A/N: Well what did you guys think of the chapter?**

**I also want to say thanks to everyone that has followed the story. It's now up to over 100. It really means a lot that so many people have found this story interesting enough to keep up with it **

**I've only just barely started writing the next chapter, I hope to make some headway this weekend since I finally have the full weekend off for the first time in like a month.**

**Thanks for reading! **


	9. The Bug Catching Samurai

**A/N: Here's Chapter 9! Sorry it took so dang long to get this chapter out. Life has been crazy dealing with how things have changed with Coronavirus. **

**This chapter is a little bit of a breather for Red and everyone else too I suppose. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Trials of a Trainer

Chapter 9: The Bug Catching Samurai

I was a bit confused to say the least when I next woke up. My last memory was trying to release my starter in a panic as I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness, because I saw a huge pinsir bearing down on me.

I didn't expect to wake up ever again following that, to be completely honest. Or at least if I did it would be in the forest with my body torn to shreds from the brown bug.

Instead, I found myself wrapped up in blankets on a couch in a small one room cabin. There was a small TV stand against the wall that held a dinky little television, reminiscent of the one mom and I had in our house. Along one wall was a little kitchenette with cabinets, a single sink, a wood burning stove, and a small refrigerator. A small table and two chairs were on the other wall. Behind the couch was a large bed that looked like it had been slept in, but the room was empty except for me.

I grimaced as I shuffled into a sitting position on the couch and my forearms burned, not nearly as bad as in the forest but it still stung. My arms were cleaned of blood and I had fresh bandages wrapped around them. I checked myself over and thankfully found no new injuries.

A coat rack hung on the wall next to the front door. There were a few thick jackets on it. There was also a large four foot long bug catching net. What caught my eye though, was a set of armor fashioned out of shiny brown pinsir plates.

_What the hell?_

I know I was about to pass out, but I swear I was coherent enough to know the difference between armor and the actual bug pokemon.

I had barely finished the thought when the front door opened and a large round man in his mid-thirties walked in. He had shaggy black hair and a long black beard. He was dressed in dirty jeans, a button-up shirt and had a belt of pokeballs around his waist with a sword clipped to it.

"Great!" He said in a deep burly voice. "You're finally awake."

I blinked. "Who are you? Where am I? And what the hell happened?"

"The name's Sammy," the man said while hanging up his belt and sword on the rack. "You're in my cabin. I found you nearly half-dead bleedin' out in the middle of the forest."

"I was not bleeding out! I had two gashes on my arms!"

Sammy snorted. "Could've fooled me. You were covered from your fingers to your shoulders in blood. At first I thought I found another dead body, but then you tried to release your pokemon."

The large man pulled up a chair and sat in it, making it creak with his weight.

"What's your name anyway?"

"Red."

"Is that some kind of nickname?"

"Of sorts," I said noncommittally. It was more my name then a nickname at this point. I hadn't gone by my real name since long before mom had died.

"You a trainer? Challenging the league?" The large man asked.

I nodded.

"I had a nickname when I challenged the League." The man smiled. "I called myself the samurai back then. Now, I just go by Sammy."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"Well, you panicked when you saw me and tried to release your pokemon, but passed out before you could."

I nodded. "I remember that."

"Then, I brought you back here. I had to perform some...eh...minor surgery if you'd even call it that."

"What?!" I asked.

"You had a couple of leech seed vines in your gashes," he gestured to a metal bowl sitting on the side table.

I peered in it and saw three six inch long leafy green vines that were covered in blood.

"I expect that's why you passed out. I pulled them out, and sewed and bandaged you all up."

"Thank you," I said sincerely. "I probably would have died if you hadn't found me."

"There's enough monsters out here to kill us ten times over, if I get the chance to save someone from 'em I'll take it."

I nodded again, quietly thanking the legendaries for having Sammy find me when he did.

"How did you end up getting cut up that bad?"

"I got into a fight with a scyther," I said. _I neglected to mention that it was a psychotic experiment for obvious reasons. _

"Damn!" Saul's eyes bugged out. "I take it you won?"

"I barely did. It took all three of my pokemon, plus me with a large knife to bring it down to the point where I could catch it. One of them died in the attempt," I finished darkly.

"I'm sorry to hear that," the man said quietly. "I take it that was your first pokemon to lose?" He asked.

"Yes," I said with a sigh.

"My advice would be to not dwell on it. Just to do your best to make sure it doesn't happen again. Pokemon deaths happen out here in this untamed world."

In my mind's eye I watched Sora dive and get bladed again. I shook my head and released a shaky breath.

_I can't think about that now. I can't do anything for her now that she's gone, except give her a proper burial. _

"So was that pinsir I remember seeing you?" I said changing the subject and gesturing to the rack that the sword and armor which I now recognized as being a modern stylized version of traditional samurai armor. Except it was fashioned out of pinsir carapace.

The man barked out a laugh. "No, that was Stag. He was my starter," he said. The man snapped a ball off his belt on the rack and released a shiny brown pinsir that stood so tall it had to crouch to fit in the room.

"A starter?" I asked. "That's impressive. I know they're one of the more dangerous aggressive bug pokemon out there."

"Almost as dangerous as that scyther you encountered," Saul said with a grin. "I didn't catch him by myself. I had some help."

An inkling of a thought began to form in my head.

"What kind of help?" I asked.

"My family owned a silk armor company dating back to almost the Great War. So, you could say bug catching is in my blood. The men were bug catchers, and the women were all silk weavers. My father was a professional bug catcher, " his eyes looked like he was a world away.

"You didn't have to be a professional to catch what most of the men in my family caught for two generations. They'd go out and catch caterpie and wurmple and bring them back where they'd be milked for their silk. The women would weave it into flexible armor nearly as strong as steel. Eventually though, the caterpie and wurmple would evolve. The men would have to go out and catch more.

"There's a lot of danger out in the forest, as you obviously know. My father was their guard out in the forest. They had to deal with beedrill hives, venemoth flapping poison, sometimes the occasional heracross. He'd try to catch them, there's a lot of bug collectors out there, and bug pokemon are used to make different medicines as well.

"When I was fifteen I was accompanying them and we wandered into a pinsir's territory. He was a juvenile, probably about as tall as I was then," Sammy smiled fondly.

"My father and I worked together to wear it down and he passed me a pokeball which I caught him with." Sammy laughed. "Training was a hundred times harder."

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"With my father's help of course, and my uncle's. Hive mind mentality in bugs certainly went a long way too of course."

Hive mind mentality was a phenomenon that was present in all bug types to some degree. The bug type had a common ancestor somewhere down the line that had a very strict hierarchy which has allowed it to survive in so many different species. Some, like the beedrill, combee and spinarak, it is obviously adhered to. Others, like heracross, skorupi, and yanma it is much more difficult to trigger the mentality.

"It took the three of us working together to get him to submit and recognize me as the 'king', I suppose. " Sammy continued. "There were still issues after that of course, I nearly lost an arm a few times."

"How did you end up out here?" I asked. I wasn't about to blow off a man skilled and experienced enough to live in the actual forest.

"My father wanted me to become a professional like him. He needed someone to help protect the bug catchers once he got too old. He taught me bug-training secrets that had been in my family for generations. He taught me how bugs could be much more than just the frail pests most people thought of them. They are still weak though and there are casualties. He taught me an easy, but time-consuming way around it was to create individual hives of species, that were all trained the same way using their hive mind mentality. Extremely time-consuming since you can only have six active pokemon at a time. So if one of them falls, I had another to back it up. Of course knowing that, and having to see your team members get cut down one after another over the years is an entirely different thing. It wears on you after the years.

"I didn't want to be the guardsman for the bug catchers, I wanted something more. I strived to be the Viridian City gym leader. It made sense, Viridian Forest was named after the city and it was one of the largest bug habitats in the world. So, the Viridian City gym should be a bug type gym. My father laughed at me and said no one takes bug pokemon that seriously anymore, and that the League wouldn't go for a bug type gym. Keep in mind, this was before Bugsy was appointed Gym Leader of Azalea's gym. I didn't care. I was going to prove to the world that it could work."

"So what happened?" I asked.

Sammy laughed darkly. "The Burning of Viridian happened. I had just earned my fifth badge in Celadon when I heard the news. Viridian City had been attacked by dragons. My family's business that had been run for generations? Gone. Burned to the ground. My father died in the attack."

"I remember that day," I said trailing off. "I was there. My mother died in the attack. Giovanni saved my life."

"Giovanni," Sammy spat. "He stole my dream from me. I had briefly considered giving it all up, and returning to try and salvage my family's business, but I now was the perfect time to try and gain the gym leader position. I only needed a few more badges and I figured I could just barely qualify before they put in a permanent leader. Or if they did, I was confident I could unseat them. Until Giovanni decided to ask for the position. There was no way I would be able to unseat the would-be-champion and savior of Viridian.

"I went home and tried to run the family business the scraps that were left, but it wasn't the same. We eventually went under. Over a hundred years making silk armor and we lost it when our entire bug supply were burned up. This was also when the Youngster craze was going on, and people were dying more frequently than ever in the forest. I came here to try and help. I built my cabin, and now spend my days helping lost trainers and occasionally saving their lives," Sammy smirked.

"You've been through a hell of a lot," I said.

"Not more than any other trainer that makes it that far. What's your story?"

"I'm just challenging the League, and seeing how far I can make it."

"That's what you're striving and risking your life for? To see how far you can make it?"

"My goal is to make it further than my brother," I said. I didn't mention that it would involve challenging and taking the Grand Championship from Lance. When you tell people that they tend to roll their eyes and nod.

"Who's your brother?"

"Gary Oak."

"Ha!" Sammy let out a booming laugh. "I'm going to keep my eye on you!"

While Sammy busied himself with making dinner for the two or us, I grabbed my pack and went through it (it still had everything). I wanted to be able to head out soon, but there were things I needed to take care of first.

I pulled out my pokedex, it had three unread messages. Two were from Oak, and one was from Blue.

_Red,_

_My A.C.E. contacts have informed me that there currently are no active facilities or even any ongoing missions in the forest. I advise you to leave the facility as carefully and quickly as possible. It is possible that this is some kind of foreign operation, or legendaries forbid a domestic one that slipped passed A.C.E. Regardless, if I don't hear from you within 24 hours I will be coming out there myself with A.C.E. to investigate. _

_Be careful, _

_-Oak _

There was a second message from Oak that I had received several hours after the first. It was also encrypted which both puzzled and worried me. After half an hour of trying known phrases from the Professor, that only Blue or I would know, I finally managed to unlock it.

_Red,_

_Firstly, I was pleased and irked at the same time when I saw the notification that you had a successful new capture. I was in the midst of preparing the aides for an extended period of my being gone. I told you to message me when you were safe! I expected this lapse in judgment from Gary, not from you! _

_Secondly, I wanted to verify the information I received back about the capture. I expect it's just a bug in the pokedex since it is the beta model. It's rare for a bug to slip through the cracks, nonetheless it would put my anxieties to rest. According to the data (which as far as I can tell was not corrupted when it was transmitted), your newest capture, the scyther, is both a bug type and a grass type. Which you know is preposterous since a scyther is a bug and flying type. _

_I just find it suspicious that such an anomaly occurred after you ventured through a reactivated long defunct base. I can chalk it up to the old metals of the bunker playing with the wireless functionally of the pokedex. _

_If that is not the case however, and this anomaly is with the actual pokemon itself, I am relieved because that means you managed to escape from the people that managed to do this. _

_I will give you this advice as both your guardian and a scientist:_

_You need to take the pokeball, cut it in half and throw one half as far as you can in one direction, and the other as far as you can in the other. You do not want to attempt to train a pokemon like this. I have been involved in this work before, decades ago, they were impossible to handle. It also worries me that someone was able to get their hands on enough classified League files that they were able to reactivate a long shut down project. I cannot and will not say more than that. _

_Whoever these people are, they are not from A.C.E., and you do not want them coming after you. This is a foolhardy endeavor. _

_Again, I simply hope that this is just a glitch with the pokedex, and not something else. _

_Please take my advice,_

_-Oak _

_P.S. A.C.E. is on approach to that bunker as I write this. I hope for your sake, you did not take anything from there. Whether it be from the new mysterious laboratory or from the military base. If you did, A.C.E. will try to recover it as they would consider the military base League property. I would suggest you get rid of it soon, or keep it secret. _

Oak's message did give me pause. There was a lot that wasn't explicitly stated in it.

I can't say I was that surprised that the League had some shady projects in its past. In fact, I expected it. The world of pokemon is a dangerous one and humankind needed every advantage to survive.

I also wasn't surprised in the slightest that Oak was involved. Of course they'd recruit the best scientist in Indigo.

It also spoke volumes that he thought these experiments were impossible to train properly. I personally considered Professor Oak to be the best trainer in the world. Even better than Lance.

I intended to be better than both though.

_Oak, _

_The pokedex did not glitch during transmission. This pokemon is an anomaly, and unlike anything that I have seen before. I fully intend to train it to the best of my ability. I went through hell to obtain it, and I'm not giving it up that easily. Your concerns have been noted, and I am grateful for the heads up concerning A.C.E. _

_-Red_

I encrypted it and sent it to him.

I added researching whatever project that Oak referenced to my already long to-do list.

Sammy sat a plate of food down in front of me which I thanked him for and wolfed down as we made idle conversation, but my mind was elsewhere.

I pulled my pokedex back out after I finished eating. After a moment's deliberation to decide on whether or not I truly wanted to see how far behind Blue I really was, I opened his message.

_Red, _

_How are you doing slowpoke? I know I got a bit of a head-start on you but damn. I didn't think you'd be this far behind. _

_I hope you're not having too much trouble in the forest. You sure are taking your sweet time getting to Pewter. I stayed an extra day hoping you'd make it so we could have a battle, but you're still not here! _

_I think the whole forest was cursed from the war. I myself had trouble getting through it. I wandered right into a giant beedrill hive. I almost wished I had chosen a charmander instead of my squirtle. We made it out though, bugs don't fly very well when they have a squirtle spraying jets of water and a new pidgeotto squawking at them. _

_You wipe that smirk off your face. I know you're the more cautious of the two of us, but I swear I just walked into that hive like we did to that ursaring's den. _

_I also caught Cleopatra, the biggest beedrill you've ever seen. I thought she was the queen of the hive when I first saw her, but she's a soldier. She's streamlined for speed and has a stinger that will put a hole through your leg. I know, because that's how we met. _

_The rest of the trip through Viridian was boring in comparison. _

_Pewter was pretty quick earning _

Embedded in the message was a picture of Blue standing in front of a rhydon statue in the pewter gym holding the boulder badge.

_I didn't really expect anything less of course. _

_Make sure you stop by and see the museum while you're in the city (although I'm sure a nerd like you is already planning on it). You remember Vicky Jones from Gramps' lab? She works there now. She's the head of the Great War exhibit. _

Vicky Jones was one of Oak's former aides. She was put in charge of Blue and I when we helped out at the Lab following the ursaring incident. Vicky was my favorite of all of Oak's aides and the one I learned the most from, other than Oak himself of course. I'd definitely have to track her down once I made it to catch up and see what her opinion was on that pokeball I salvaged from the military base.

_I'll probably be gone before you read this, I've got a teleportation scheduled for in the morning. I'm heading across the mountains. I only had enough to get me to Cherrygrove, but from there I'm heading to Violet City to challenge that bird brain Falkner. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he realizes my bird is bigger than his. _

_Stay safe out there! You can't die on me, Red. At least not until you die of shock when I beat your ass on the Plateau! _

_Smell you later,_

_-Blue _

My stomach churned as I sat there staring blankly at my pokedex. Blue already earned one badge, I was still several days away from even attempting to battle for my first. I was a lot further behind than I felt comfortable with.

I wrote a quick response back, letting him know that I was indeed still alive. I told him that since I wasn't an overachiever I could take my time strolling around the region collecting my badges and still beat him to the Plateau. I cryptically told him that I fulfilled our childhood dream, but couldn't say more on it until we saw each other in person. Whenever that would be.

I needed to leave for Pewter. Tonight.

But I needed to take care of my pokemon before I could even be somewhat prepared to leave.

I climbed off the couch and moved to the middle of the floor.

I opened my pack and pulled out my first aid kit and spread it out along the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sammy watching me curiously.

I dug around and pulled out a normal pokeball and thumbed the release.

Volatile appeared in front of me. He blew smoke in my face.

"Ass," I coughed from the sulphur. "Let me get a good look at you."

He snarled at me as I began to inspect the damage from the battle.

He had one giant deep cut across his belly, which was dripping hot blood. He also had a half dozen other smaller cuts from the fight across his shoulders and upper chest that I hadn't noticed before.

I cleaned my hands with alcohol and then I poked and prodded the smaller cuts as he continued to growl.

None of them were very deep, they'd probably heal fairly quickly. The one on his belly was going to be a problem, at least until I made it to a pokemon center.

He got cut directly by the scyther's blades and I wanted to make sure he didn't have any leech seeds in the wounds.

"I have to check inside your big one now," I warned him.

I grabbed his snout and held onto it tightly with one hand. I knew he wasn't going to hurt me on purpose, at least not while he was this injured, but I didn't want him to bite me while I was inspecting him. He was a lot more with it now than he was when we dealt with the spider bites.

With my other hand I put my fingers into his wound as gently as possible. I hissed as my fingers came into direct contact with his hot blood. Volatile growled deep in his throat and exhaled more sulphur. I started to feel around inside, while trying to hold my dragon as still as possible while he started to thrash.

"Almost done," I muttered to him as I searched one end of it to the other. The wound itself was a couple inches deep, nothing too bad...for a baby dragon.

The chances of me actually finding a leech seed in his body were pretty slim. Fire types had a type advantage against grass types, which means they are resistant to the latter's attack. Part of that stems from the fact that generally a fire pokemon's blood runs much hotter than what is considered normal. This allows for any foreign substance from grass types, generally status condition changers, to be burned out of their bodies before they can do much damage.

All this considered, I still gave Volatile a fifty-fifty shot at having seeds inside him since he was young and who knows what all was done to that scyther.

I was about to pull my fingers out when I felt something hard and knotty brush against the top of my fingers.

I gripped it and pulled. A three inch blood-covered green vine came out of Volatile's stomach. He let out a small muffled roar through his closed maw as it detached and came loose.

I threw it on the floor and grabbed the open bottle of alcohol.

I saw Sammy standing in the small kitchen area, ready to jump in and help at a moment's notice.

"I'm sorry, but now we have to disinfect it." I let him catch his breath for a minute before I carefully started pouring the alcohol into the wound.

He snarled and thrashed, but not hard enough to make me lose my grip on his snout. I'm not sure if he trusted himself to not hurt me.

"There," I said a few moments later and released his snout. I set the alcohol bottle down and watched him just sit there breathing.

I stood and walked past a shocked Sammy to the sink and washed the blood off my hands.

"We're not done yet," I called to Volatile as he started to get to his feet. "We still have to sew it shut, but it won't be nearly as bad."

I grabbed a sterile needle and line and quickly and efficiently sewed the stomach wound shut. Volatile didn't move a muscle or make a sound as I did it. Thankfully, I'd had lots of practice at Oak's lab and ranch sewing up injuries, both my own and other pokemon's.

"All done," I told my starter. He narrowed his eyes at me. "I mean it this time. I'll tell you what, I'll let you stay out of your pokeball the rest of the way to Pewter, okay?"

Volatile snorted more smoke, but nodded.

I chuckled and returned him to his pokeball and began to clean up the mess and repack my bag.

Ten minutes later, I grimaced as I hoisted my pack on my back and my arms throbbed. I let out a clenched breath.

"Sammy," I started and holding out my hand. "Thank you so much for saving me, and letting me recover in your cabin, but I really need to get going. Can you point me in the direction of Pewter?"

"Whoa there, hold on a second." The bug catcher threw his arms up. "Number one, You're not done recovering judging by how much trouble you had putting on that pack. Number two, it is the dead of night and pitch black out there."

I looked out the window. Evening had long since come and gone between my talking with Sammy, responding to emails, and fixing Volatile.

"You're not going anywhere tonight," the bug catcher continued. "If you do your likely to wind up dead by morning in your condition if you run into any of those nighttime nasties. Pewter ain't going anywhere. I think you should rest up and let your arms heal a bit more, you'll burn yourself out going at this rate."

_A normal person might be burned out, but I was raised by Oaks. Their pace is twice as hectic as this and I was barely able to keep up with them. _

"If you still wanna leave for Pewter in the morning, I'll point you in the right direction than."

"Okay," I agreed. I didn't really have much choice. I had no idea where I was in the forest now. He did make some good points too. "I'll hold off until then."

We both went to bed shortly after that.

Despite needing as much rest as possible, and still feeling the exhaustion from the last few days, I still had trouble falling asleep. Thoughts swirled in my brain of Sora dying, the battle with the scyther, both messages from Blue and Oak and an unsettling feeling that I was still falling farther and farther behind my brother.

* * *

**A/N: My work schedule is finally getting back to something related to normal so I should have more time and energy for writing now. (I hope). I've been going over the next few chapters in my head during the slow period and can't wait to get it started so I can share it with you guys. **

**Anyway. I'm not completely happy with some of the dialogue between Sammy and Red, but oh well. **

**What did you think of the chapter? What did you guys think of Sammy? Of Blue's journey so far? (I have an interlude planned for him soon). Or that Oak isn't as squeaky clean as everyone thinks and that he's been involved in some questionable projects? Let me know! **

**Thanks to all of the responses and for all of the follows and faves! You guys are the best! They've really helped me to push on through all this craziness and find time to write.**


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